The value of professional standards in aerospace and defence IT

A commitment to attaining the highest levels of competency through professional registration and adherence to professional standards is not only admirable, it is also the hallmark of a trustworthy organisation. BAE Systems Naval Ships has renewed its focus on the professional development of its operatives to ensure that they are performing at the highest levels of proficiency in their field, as well as to provide them with clear and transparent career progression pathways. Stuart Justice and Jonathan Oliver explain.

Why is professional registration in the aerospace, defence and information security industry so important?

BAE Systems Naval Ships is committed to ensuring that all of our engineers reach a high standard in their professional engineering competencies. We recognise that professional registration demonstrates both internally and externally that we, as a company, are committed to the development of our engineering staff, and that they are committed to the engineering profession. We design, develop and deliver complex products that are critical to the safety of our nation and therefore require engineers with a demonstrably high level of competence.

Due to the breadth of skills in our business and scope of our projects, our teams also include Chartered Physicists, Chartered Mathematicians, Chartered Environmentalists and Chartered IT Professionals and those working towards Incorporated and Engineering Technician status. A growing number of individuals have further achieved fellowship status of their chosen institution, and are actively supporting institutions in a voluntary capacity.

What have been the main drivers to increase and promote the importance of professional registration?

Our customers are increasingly asking for evidence that we have Suitability Qualified and Experienced Personnel (SQEP) to fulfil their orders and win new business. Our internal engineering capability development tool allows our staff to capture their competency levels against discipline specific skills, combined with their academic qualifications and professional registration status. We have defined expectations for membership and registration levels for each role in our function, from those with delegated authority for making engineering decisions through to our early careers staff.

Can you explain some of the barriers and how these have been addressed?

Educating our employees on the process and benefits of becoming professionally registered has been an important part of this process. Initially, some employees were not sure of which professional engineering institution to select, or had misconceptions about their requirements in respect of academic qualifications. We addressed these issues by engaging with multiple institutions to deliver webinars to our engineers on a regular basis, and supported existing registrants in providing mentorship to others. Our intranet pages on professional registration, regular functional communications, engagement events and our newsletter supplement these activities to keep our engineers informed and up to date.

Individuals have benefited from enhanced recognition within the organisation, including improved career development and progression opportunities. Individuals have valued the external, independent assessment of their competence and commitment that achieving professional registration provides. For many, this has provided a key milestone in their career to date. Members have also benefited from access to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities offered by their institution as an additional mechanism for learning and development.

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BAE Systems Naval Ships covers all fees related to professional membership and registration for one institution per employee. To avoid employees needing to pay for their membership individually and claim back via our expenses policy, we have now established centralised payment schemes with a number of professional engineering institutions, including BCS. This enables our engineers to complete their membership without a requirement for upfront payment. Annualised billing enables us to forecast our professional membership costs more accurately and reduces overhead in processing individual expense claims.

We have recently introduced a reward coin for those achieving engineering technician, incorporated and chartered professional registration levels.

How can a focus on professional development be encouraged across other departments and sectors within BAE systems?

We have recently established a professional registration working group at BAE Systems Group level, which is centrally coordinating our strategy within engineering. This has included centrally arranging webinars and information sessions across the group, for the institutions that are not domain specific such as the IET and BCS.

Can you tell us about your decision to become BCS organisational members?

BAE Systems Naval Ships has recently commenced an organisational membership with BCS, demonstrating to customers and the wider community that we are committed to upholding the highest professional and ethical standards, and also providing a way to further benchmark the knowledge and competence of our engineers. The relationship with BCS opens up alignment with the SFIA plus framework as well as access to a range of professional IT certifications and qualifications.