‘It never occurred to me that I could become an ICE Fellow’

I never thought I’d become an ICE Fellow. It just never occurred to me that I could.

In my mind, ICE Fellowship was for eminent people who built things and had degrees.

Not highways maintenance engineers whose main tasks were ensuring public safety and roadwork compliance with the Highways Act.

It quite literally took someone prodding and poking me and telling me to apply for it to happen. I’m extremely grateful to them.

My route to Fellowship

I look after apprentices and aspiring professionals within Cormac, one of the Corserv group of companies which is wholly owned by Cornwall Council.

At school, I took technical drawing classes because I didn’t want to do languages – I was the only girl in the class.

I then did engineering drawing, which led to my first job in the drawing office at South West Water. I gained an ordinary national certificate (ONC) in civil engineering while I was there.

I joined Cornwall Council in 1990 as a technician and have progressed since.

I went to what was then Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and got my higher national certificate (HNC) on sandwich block release.

I immediately applied to become an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) and haven’t looked back!

Giving back to the profession

I’ve done numerous jobs here at the council – technical, building and construction, minor improvements.

I now look after apprentices, which I see as my way of giving something back to the profession.

This involves everything from making sure they do their knowledge, skills and behaviours to chasing homework and endpoint assessments.

Providing the help they need

I make sure that they have the right help and get them out onsite to see how things are actually created.

We are able to rotate the level 3, level 5 and level 6 apprentices throughout the business because we have a couple of ongoing large highways and environmental schemes.

We also have our own design office, laboratories and site offices.

Applying to become an ICE Fellow

I was lucky that I was hand-held through the process. Because I’d never thought of applying, I had no preconceptions.

I simply read through the documents and was given some help to put things together.

The main thing I’d say is to take your time and talk to others.

Think about whether you are actually providing evidence of how you meet the attributes.

Also, share your thoughts about which attributes you are planning to go for with your sponsors.

You may find that they’ll think that you’re stronger in different areas. Challenge your preconceptions about yourself.

An exclusive, inclusive club

I like the sense of camaraderie that comes with being an ICE Fellow.

Locally, we have a dinner at Christmas and it’s a nice event to attend.

I get to meet other Fellows, join panels, talk about policy and give opinions.

It’s great to be included in that higher echelon of civil engineers as it’s not something I would have got to do otherwise.

I’m a highway engineer. I sort drainage.

I’m not a town and country planner, a strategic road builder, I don’t have a bridge named after me, yet I’m now a member of this ‘exclusive’ club.

The influence of being a Fellow

Being an ICE Fellow also enables me to influence. I use the post-nominals FICE in my signature, which adds personal gravitas.

My company can use that to add weight when going for tenders, but I’ve also been able to influence others to do the same.

They can look at my journey and see that someone like me can attain ICE Fellowship.

Helping others go for Fellowship

Here in South West England, we run ICE Fellowship workshops.

We pull people in, force-feed them coffee and shortbread, and run them through the application process.

We tell them what needs to go where on the paperwork and teach them the role and importance of sponsors – how to approach them and get their input, and how they can help.

I run the workshops and, generally, I’ve found that people apply because, like me, they were prodded and poked to apply.

You don’t see that many who are totally self-driven.

The people that apply to Fellowship

The variety of people you see in these workshops continues to amaze me.

Some people come to the workshops with paperwork that they started years ago but haven’t done anything with since; why that happens, probably needs further analysis.

But at the other end of the scale, I had one lady who turned up with all of the paperwork already completed.

She’d covered off four attributes and was very strong in all of them.

Just a hobby?

It’s not all about your professional work, either.

I had one male potential ICE Fellow who didn’t think it was worth mentioning that he also volunteers at a historical railway.

I asked what he did there, and the short answer was everything – calculations, safety, bridge inspections. All things that, if they weren’t signed off properly, the railway wouldn’t be able to get insurance.

I pointed out that it might all be ‘just’ a hobby, but it carries a huge amount of responsibility and needs considerable skills to deliver.

Trust the process

We need more ICE Fellows, especially female ones, and the application process is set up to help people succeed.

There are 14 attributes to choose from and that gives you a broad choice.

If you can write up more than just one, then do it.

I would say to applicants to trust in the process and in yourself.

If you can meet the attribute, the rest is just paperwork.

Learn more about becoming a Fellow