Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS)

It helps you to benchmark where you are in your development.

Typically, you’ll see a steady rise in your achievements, particularly between year 3 and 4. It’s a useful guide for your final year, because your mentor can indicate the minimum score you need to register as a professional engineer.

Your progress throughout your development is assessed against the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). Every time you achieve a new level of competence, you’re one step closer to becoming a professional engineer.

You should see a steady increase in all of your achievements over the course of your MPDS, particularly in your third and fourth year. At the start of your final year, you’ll be able to see which areas you need to work on in order to register as a professional engineer – your mentor will help you with this. The minimum competence levels expected before you can make an application for professional registration are three level 3s and two level 2s.

Yes - if you have discussed the situation with your mentor, and they agree that you need more time to gain the appropriate competence levels.

The system will automatically allow you to rollover into the next year. Make sure you continue to submit your reports and assessments during your extension period – you’ll need them for your professional registration interview.

For Chartered Engineer, typically four years’ worth of quarterly reports and annual assessments should be completed and submitted before applying for registration, however previous experience reduces this timeframe by the amount claimed.

For Incorporated Engineer, typically three years’ worth of quarterly reports and annual assessments should be completed and submitted before applying for registration, however previous experience reduces this timeframe by the amount claimed.

The quarterly report comprises the key elements of your achievements and contributions. You’ll need to make comments on the objectives you set for the quarter.

Include details of:

• Any presentations or reports you wrote
• Feasibility studies
• Meetings with suppliers and customers
• Process and design reviews
• Responsibilities

Avoid all jargon. Keep your report between 200-500 words.

If your report is late because your mentor hasn’t yet approved your plans, evidence or reports, discuss the problem with them. If it persists, find a new mentor by contacting your company’s training scheme.

You’ll need to keep on top of your professional development or you may not be able to use your MPDS records for your professional review interview. Your report won’t meet QA requirements for professional registration via MPDS if you wait longer than two years to submit it.

No, but you can keep a simple framework of planning, quarterly reports and annual assessments if you want to. If you aren’t using the 'Evidence' function in Career Developer, you’ll just need to give evidence in your quarterly report of the specific EngC UK-SPEC competences you achieved.

Some organisations don’t allow you to record work-based evidence outside their area of control, so follow your company’s guidelines for evidence submission.

Don’t upload evidence that’s secure or commercially sensitive. If you do upload anything that needs to be removed, please contact the MPDS helpline and we’ll take it down for you immediately.

An action plan allows you to set aims and objectives for the quarter you’re working in. Your mentor can tell you if they’re achievable – and if you’ll have the resources to do it.

If you don’t achieve your objectives, just readdress them in your next plan. If you think you don’t have sufficient opportunities for development, contact your mentor or your organisation’s training supervisor. It’s up to you to make sure you receive the right placements within your company.

No. The score reflects your single piece of evidence for that particular competence. These are auto-mapped to your check sheet, showing where you have gaps in the competence framework.

Your mentor will manually insert the overall competence score for A, B, C, D and E on the Annual Assessment Report, but these won’t show up on your check sheet.

It’s really important that you report your key achievements and challenges throughout each stage of your development. It’s a compulsory part of the scheme because proving your level of monitored progress is vital to your success on MPDS. If you don’t submit all your reports on time, you won’t meet the requirements of the scheme and you won’t be able to use it as your route to registration.

You have up to two months after the deadline to submit a Quarterly Report.

Remember - making quarterly plans and submitting evidence of your activities and assignments will make the reporting process much easier. Submitting Plans and Evidence is optional.

It’s not compulsory to make plans and submit evidence on the scheme, but using these functions can add real value to your report and will help to make the assessment process much easier. Organising meetings with your mentor can help you get the best quality advice and support and they offer a chance for you to discuss any aspects of the scheme that you find challenging. You should try and meet up with your mentor at least once every quarter.

Your mentor is there to help you achieve the highest levels of competence, so make the most of their support and feedback when you can.

This tool allows you to upload examples of your activities and assignments that demonstrate your levels of competences. You should include a summary of any project roles, courses, risk assessments and quality management tasks that you’ve completed during the quarter.

You can upload evidence as a report, calculations, a company appraisal or even a drawing – however you feel best demonstrates the competences you hope to achieve.

Your mentor will review your submitted evidence against the EngC UK-SPEC  and will score your levels of competence. If you need a bit more clarification from your mentor, you can always ask for more feedback.

The evidence size limit should ideally be no bigger than 5MB. If it exceeds this, we would advise to split the file into two or three parts and upload them as separate items. It is good practice to upload no more than five evidence items per quarter.

It’s important that you submit your reports on time, so if your mentor hasn’t approved your plans and evidence, you should remind them. Make sure you’re always in touch with your mentor when a new report is due.

However, if you feel like your mentor is always forgetting to review your work, you should consider finding a new one. Contact your MPDS scheme administrator to request a new mentor. Your progression is the most important part of your MPDS, and you should always have a strong support network behind you.

It’s important to keep on top of your professional development if you want your MPDS to be successful. You will need to keep regular contact with your mentor and make sure you both find a way to stick to your reporting deadlines.

We encourage keeping to the annual reporting dates on the MPDS route as this helps to ensure that the professional development being recorded will demonstrate current competence levels. This is particularly important in the last two years of the MPDS scheme.

You will not be able to submit a full year’s worth of reports in one go, as it will be flagged up that you haven’t followed the process properly. Reports need to be submitted every quarter and at the end of the year - it’s the best way to fully evaluate your achievements.

If you have not uploaded any reports within the year, you will need to follow the standard application process to become professionally registered and gain membership of the Institution. All of the work you have completed on MPDS so far and any additional experience can be referenced in the application and you can apply when you feel you have meet the requirements.

Keep a regular check on your report due dates on the ‘My Status’ page.

Yes,  they can still be your mentor.  However IEng Mentors should ensure that they are fully aware of the differences between the competencies required for IEng and CEng: 

UK-SPEC latest edition

When you are ready to apply for Chartership, your IEng Mentor can be your second sponsor, however you will also require a CEng sponsor to support your application.

Firstly, you need to have a discussion with your mentor. They might be happy to continue mentoring you after their move, in which case you don’t need to do anything.

You can continue working with your mentor if they’re willing to meet regularly. However, if your mentor says they are unable to carry on meeting with you, you’ll need to find someone else to take on the role. Remember, all new mentors must be a CEng or IEng registered with the Engineering Council. Therefore, they can be registered with IMechE, or with any other Professional Engineering Institution. If your new mentor isn’t registered with us, they’ll need to complete a Mentor Registration Form.

Email us at mpds@imeche.org with your new mentor's details.

If you’re joining a new organisation with a registered or accredited MPDS, you’ll need to send us an MPDS Transfer form within two months of joining.

If your new company isn’t registered or accredited for MPDS you cannot continue on MPDS - you can transfer to the Supported Registration Scheme (SRS). SRS utilises the same online reporting tools as MPDS to provide a disciplined and regular reporting framework aligned to the EngC’s UK-SPEC competences. You still have the benefit of having a mentor supporting you but, SRS simply provides a structured approach to help your Initial Professional Development (IPD); you are able to self-monitor your progress and once ready, you will need to apply for professional registration via the Standard-route.

If you have completed and sent an MPDS Transfer form to us and your organisation is not registered or accredited, you will automatically be transferred to the Supported Registration Scheme (SRS).

Email mpds@imeche.org and tell us when you want your suspension to start. Make sure all your quarterly and annual reports are up to date before then.  You can restart your MPDS from where you left off. Please note there are no refunds for MPDS fees.

We can only retain suspended or terminated records for two years. After this period, you’ll have to apply for professional registration by submitting the standard application documents.

Yes, but you’ll need to inform us of your plans and let us know when you return so we can reactivate your account.

Remember – you need to make sure you pay your IMechE subscription fee to prevent your MPDS membership from lapsing. If you have any further questions, call IMechE Subscriptions on +44 (0)1925 214050.

Yes – previous experience is any relevant engineering experience that your mentor agrees meets EngC UK-SPEC requirements, such as work experience on student placements, or at a previous company.

The maximum amount of previous experience you can claim is 52 weeks if you’re working toward IEng and 78 weeks if you’re working toward CEng.

Your mentor will want to see evidence of your experience, such as in the following:

• Log books
• Project or assignment notes
• Learning experiences
• Quarterly reports

You or your mentor will need to link this evidence to the relevant EngC UK-SPEC competence. Your mentor will have to assess your experience on or before you register on the MPDS company scheme.

We do not accept claims for previous experience if they are requested after you have registered.

You don’t need to fill in a quarterly report and upload it to your online account if your mentor has already signed-off your previous experience.

For previous experience, you do not need to do a report for this, but if you do decide to do this, this can be uploaded to the evidence section as a previous experience report. There is no set template for this, but it would basically take the same form of a quarterly report where you would need to demonstrate with examples how the experience meets the EngC UK-SPEC competences.

When you log in to the My Status page, you’ll see your quarterly reporting framework. This page will also include details of any previous experience, so if you have 52 weeks of approved previous experience, all of year 1 will be credited and you’ll start your quarterly reporting from Year 2 Quarter 1.