About the Graduate Development Grant
This grant supports employers training graduates towards the outcomes expressed in UK-SPEC competencies C, D, E3 & 5. In implementing this grant, the ECITB is assuring consistency of development and providing all employers with the opportunity to develop their new engineering graduates in areas which should lead to improved project delivery – specifically:
- project capability
- contributing towards the net zero economy
- leadership
- commercial awareness
- interpersonal skills
- diversity and inclusion
- ethical awareness
- communication and stakeholder management
- risk management
- negotiation skills
- digital leadership
- In-scope employers submit their graduate training schemes for approval between July and August. Decisions in principle are awarded in September. The link to the application area will be added to this page when it is live for 2024.
Applying for the Graduate Development Grant – process and requirements
To be able to access this funding your company’s graduate training plan must be approved by the ECITB Graduate Development Grant Panel and your graduates must meet specific requirements.
Funding is managed through the ECITB online portal. Once the company graduate training plan been approved by the ECITB, eligibility of the graduates confirmed and the funding agreement signed, funding can commence.
Company graduate training plan
Your company must submit a graduate training plan outlining the training interventions for your graduates. This includes knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) needed to deliver each work-based activity (WBA) that underpins the learning outcomes in the ECITB’s graduate development grant training framework. The same training intervention can underpin more than one WBA.
The ECITB’s training framework links to the Chartered Engineer standard for the Engineering Council’s UK-SPEC for providing technical management and leadership (C), communication and interpersonal skills (D), personal and professional commitment to sustainable development and ethics (E3 and E5).
Your graduate development scheme may already link to these competencies. There are recommended ECITB training courses that support development of some of these key skills.
The scheme you submit can be a mix of training interventions on and off the job. Supported by this grant, your graduates will have undertaken training to gain the KSBs needed to enable them to undertake work that provides evidence of competencies against the UK-SPEC for Chartered Engineer.
This training is expected to take around 24 months for the graduate to complete.
Once submitted, your application is reviewed by the ECITB’s Graduate Development Grant Panel to ensure it meets the requirements of the grant.
Once this has been approved you can move to the second stage of the process of confirming eligibility of the graduates to be developed.
Eligible graduates
Once your company’s graduate training plan has been approved by the ECITB you must provide evidence for each graduate that they are eligible to receive this funding.
This funding is available for any engineering graduate who has graduated at either Bachelors or Masters level with an engineering degree. A list of institutions associated with the engineering construction industry are below. The graduates must also:
- Be employed by an ECITB in-scope company throughout the duration of the training.
- Have graduated within the last 24 months of starting the ECITB approved scheme.
List of institutions licensed by the Engineering Council to assess against the UK-SPEC
- British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT)
- Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC)
- Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering (CIBSE)
- Institution of Royal Engineers (InstRE)
- Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) **
- Institute of Acoustics (IOA)
- Chartered Institution of Plumbing & Heating Engineering (CIPHE) **
- Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IoM3)
- Chartered Institution of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM)
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Energy Institute (EI)
- Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine (IPEM)
- Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) **
- Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) **
- Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
- Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)
- Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
- Institute of Water
- Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (ICME) **
- Permanent Way Institution (PWI) **
- Institution of Engineering Designers (IED)
- Nuclear Institute (NI)
- Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET)
- Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) **
- Insitution of Fire Engineers (IFE) **
- Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA)
- Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM)
- The Association of Cost Engineers (ACostE)
- Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE)
- The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE)
- Institute of Healthcare Engineering & Estate Management (IHEEM) **
- The Welding Institute
- Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP)
- The Chartered Institute for IT (BCS)
Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) - Chartered Institute for Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES)
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
** These institutes/institutions are not included in the graduate funding.
Evidence of graduate training
As the training progresses, employers will need to provide evidence of each graduate’s individual training achieved at the end of year one and planned training for year two. This evidence must be mapped to the learning outcomes and uploaded to the online portal.
The process is repeated at the end of year two. Evidence of all training against each learning objective and each work activity must be provided for each graduate to receive the final completion grant.
Further information on the Graduate Development Grant and FAQs
Graduate Development Grant brochure
Why should my company participate in this?
This is a great opportunity to develop the soft skills of your graduates and claim an ECITB grant. It supports graduates in project capability, commercial astuteness, digital leadership.
What funding is there?
£4,000 over three fiscal years. £2K initial grant, £1K mid-term grant and £1K completion grant.
What benefits will this bring to my graduates?
This grant provides the opportunity to train and furnish graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to underpin their development as they progress to become a Chartered Engineer. Through the training, graduates demonstrate strength of knowledge against UK-SPEC competencies C, D, E3 & E5.
What are the five Engineering Council UK-SPEC competencies?
A – Knowledge and understanding
B – Design and development of processes, systems, services and products
C – Responsibility, management or leadership and demands from industry for improvement
D – Communication and interpersonal skills
E – Professional commitment
The Graduate Development Grant links to C, D and E3 & E5.
If we aren’t linked to an institute – can we still apply?
The graduate funded through the scheme must meet the eligibility criteria. This enables them to progress to become a Chartered Engineer in the future.
- Training interventions for the graduates must map to the work-based activities and learning outcomes.
- Graduates must meet the funding criteria – i.e. they must be engineering graduates eligible to apply for engineering professional recognition.
If the criteria above are met, it is likely the ECITB will approve the company scheme.
What is the Engineering Council?
The Engineering Council is the UK regulatory body for the engineering profession. It has over 222,000 accredited UK engineers and provides the competency levels for the engineering profession. There are 40 institutes registered under the Engineering Council including IMechE, IChemE, IET and the Welding Institute.
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