President’s Apprentice Scheme
Institution of Civil Engineers
President’s Apprentice Scheme
Projects 2015/16
Project 1
Represent the next generation on the Engineering Collection working group
Description: This project will enable you to be part of the team that will bring the ICE archive and
collection to life as part of the new exhibition space. The ICE is transforming how it creates and
disseminates knowledge and how it can make infrastructure and civil engineering more attractive to
the next generation. We have an archive full of stories that are engaging, informing and
educational. We need to bring the past and present to life to give future engineers access to the
lessons learnt and enable them to have societal impact. The Group will identify additional material
that the ICE would like to access from industry, work with the ICE knowledge campaign team to
integrate the history into the wider knowledge programme and collate stories to be used in exhibitions
at ICE. This will be an international programme in due course. The programme will support the 200th
Anniversary of the ICE by creating value to engineers and wider audiences through the knowledge
and engagement that it creates.
Location: London
Skills required: Creativity, knowledge of digital offerings and solutions
Learning opportunities: You will have the opportunity to work as part of a team designing and
developing an interactive set of materials to be used as part of the knowledge campaign. There will
be good individual PR opportunities as the concepts come to life. You will work with senior members
of the sector and get a broad understanding of various part of engineering that you may not be aware
of.
Question: How do people engage with stories and how would you bring engineering to life for:
schoolchildren, students, practising engineers, parents and non-engineers.
Project 2
Knowledge Transfer in the Digital Age
Description: Today knowledge transfer is no longer limited to books, reports and seminars. We have
a vast number of digital communication tools at our disposal. ICE needs to explore how these tools
can be used for effective knowledge transfer as part of a lifelong learning model. Could we create a
network of online peer to peer knowledge transfer where members are able to upload videos and
recordings of engineering challenges that they have overcome? Apprentices would not only be
involved in gathering content from their peers but also in the designing and structure of the system
Location: The majority of the work could be done remotely – 4 physical meetings would be required.
Skills required: An understanding of technology and how people engage with it for learning and
development purposes.
Learning opportunities: Online video scripting, filming, editing and distribution, learning
opportunities from the outcomes of the project itself
Question: What type of learning and development outputs do you feel are particularly suited to this
way of working?
Project 3
Development of “This is Civil Engineering” public awareness campaign
Description: We relaunched this campaign in April this year with new improved materials. The aim
was to feature our large #thisiscivilengineering banners on more civil engineering sites across the UK.
In conjunction with this, we used social media to generate momentum behind the campaign. The
objectives of this project were to increase public opportunities to see the campaign (i.e. more project
sites displaying the ‘this is civil engineering’ brand); increase public awareness (and future
appreciation) of civil engineering projects; and increase employer/client engagement with the
campaign. There is now scope to develop this campaign further. This could be looking beyond the
UK; delivering educational animations; apps; talking heads, the opportunities are endless.
Location: undefined – some meetings, but a lot could be done remotely
Skills required: an interest in raising awareness of the civil engineering profession and an ability to
design/develop a solution (ideally digital) to support #thisiscivilengineering brand
Learning opportunities: media and communications, marketing, research, development of digital
solution
Question: What one thing would you do to raise public awareness of the benefits of civil
engineering?
Projects
Institution of Civil Engineers
Project 4
State of the Nation 2016
Description: ICE has published its flagship report State of the Nation (SoN) since 2002. The
objective of the report is to position ICE as the authority on infrastructure policy and cross-cutting
issues affecting civil engineering. Previous reports have focussed on transport, water, waste, flooding,
low carbon infrastructure, and defending critical infrastructure. The SoN Infrastructure 2014 report
was highly successful, was warmly welcomed by the Government and the opposition parties, and
achieved great success in the media. The SoN report publication was the beginning of ICE’s General
Election campaign. It highlighted ICE’s presence with decision-makers and strengthened our
relationships with government departments, such as DfT, BIS and DECC. For SoN 2016, ICE will
refresh and reinforce its offering. The report will be thematic, focussing on what a particular
contemporarily important topic means for each of ICE’s infrastructure policy areas. Work will begin in
autumn 2015 with report launch in spring 2016. This will be followed by publicity and engagement
lasting until autumn 2016. The president’s apprentice would work closely with the project lead to
manage the SoN programme. This could include work such as desk research, consulting with policy
makers and industry leaders, inputting into writing the report and helping the team with pre and post
launch engagement and media.
Location: The SoN team is based in London, with occasional meetings at regional offices. However,
most work can be carried out remotely.
Skills required: Good knowledge of and interest in UK politics and current affairs, basic knowledge of
quantitative and qualitative research methods advantageous
Learning opportunities: This project will give valuable experience of and involvement in developing
a major and influential report, through its entire cycle from setting its research programme to
publication and beyond.
Question: “Why is it important for ICE to influence infrastructure policy?”
Project 5
Attracting young people into Civil Engineering: Inspiring the 5 Tribes 1
Description: The 5 Tribes report was produced by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
in 2014, where it describes a survey of values and beliefs, attitudes and preference of around 1500
young people aged 11-19. It gives people a fresh way of viewing how students’ view the world we live
in today and we need to understand what this means for our programme: Education and Inspiration.
You will review the evidence and work alongside our Education and Inspiration team to transform our
guidance for STEM ICE Ambassadors. The Five Tribes comprise of the following:
 Stem Devotees - They appeared to have strong STEM capital and are likely to be affluent or
have parents or someone they know in the industry.
 Social Artist -They tended to enjoy STEM subjects less, but were more likely to be positive
about Art, English language, Drama and Dance as school subjects.
 The Enthused Unfocused- Despite a fairly high degree of confidence in their own abilities,
this segment was the most interested in a career in engineering, they were less aware of the
entry requirements for the routes into a career.
 The Individualist- They appear highly independent and choose to work on their own. They
were more likely to study subjects such as Law, Psychology and Business.
 The Less Engaged - The Less Engaged are also characterised by a lack of confidence in
their own abilities and the disinterest for STEM Subjects
Key Objectives and Outcomes
This is a chance for you to help inspire the next generation of Civil Engineers to ensure we are
working towards meeting the 1.82 million people we will need within the engineering sector by 2022.
The objectives for the project are:
 To understand the 5 Tribes and bring that perspective into ICE’s own STEM programmes;
 To test that thinking in a STEM Ambassador context;
 To update training for ICE STEM Ambassadors, if appropriate.
 To update the ICE Ambassador Handbook to reflect insights from the 5 Tribes report
1
http://www.imeche.org/docs/default-source/knowledge/five-tribes-ersonalising-engineeringeducation.pdf?sfvrsn=0
Projects
Institution of Civil Engineers
 Overall, to improve the impact of ICE’s the work with young people in schools and colleges.
Location: Primarily in our London Headquarters with the opportunity to do some outreach work
within different regions.
Skills required: Analytical skills; good communication skills; using your own initiative; interpersonal
skills; organisational and time management skills
Learning Opportunities: To explore different attitudes to learning, and their impact in education and
the world of work; to gain experience of delivering training and guidance for a large (in this case
volunteer) workforce; to explore change management issues, through this 5 Tribes case study; to take
responsibility for managing your own project; opportunity to expand your knowledge the UK education
sector, and its relationship to engineering
Questions: Are the 5 tribes the best way to understand how young people think? Or should we try to
understand them through another filter? What do you feel like you can contribute to this project? ICE
works with young people to inspire, motivate, and help them see career opportunities within Civil
Engineering. Why do you think it’s so important we do so?
Project 6
International differences in civil engineering practice
Description: UK Civil Engineers have increasing opportunities to work internationally. There are often
subtle differences between countries and regions in civil engineering codes of practice, terminology,
national regulations, and professional requirements. These can be difficult for civil engineers, and ICE
members, to navigate. A need has been identified to help members to understand and overcome
these challenges. This could be met in a number of ways; from developing simple guidance or
national factsheets (written or visual) to developing an interactive tool (e.g. mobile app). The post
holder will act as project manager, with guidance from their ICE mentor. Tasks might include;
conducting market research, review existing research, and requirements, identifying content, making
recommendations, and managing the delivery.
Location: The majority of the work could be done remotely – 4 physical meetings would be required
Skills required: Good research skills, an eye for detail, creative thinker, interest in international
aspects of civil engineering
Learning opportunities: Research and development, product development, project management,
knowledge of international civil engineering
Question: What would be the most effective means of communicating this information and why?
Project 7
ICE guidance goes digital
Description: We want to make the process of becoming professionally qualified as smooth as
possible. This will encourage more people to consider professional qualification and meet one of the
underlying ICE targets, which is to grow and retain our membership. We’ve made good progress
recently in streamlining processes and improving our information, advice and guidance, but we still
have more to do and we’d like your help. We want your help to create a series of short guidance
videos for different stages of the qualification journey, featuring real members and their experiences.
These will complement our existing written guidance and webinars. You’ll play a key role in shaping
what is created. Here are a few examples of what we think might be useful, but we would welcome
your ideas - a brief introduction to getting qualified with ICE; a welcome video for graduates starting
their ICE Training Scheme or mentor-supported training. The new videos you help to create will add
to our toolkit of resources and support.
Location: The project will involve working with members of the ICE Qualifications Team, marketing,
digital, and web specialists all of whom are based in 8 Storey’s Gate London. However, much of the
work can be done remotely. Finding suitable members to participate in the videos is likely to require
face-to-face meetings or interviews with members in various locations.
Skills required: an understanding of technology, video-making skills preferable but not essential
Learning opportunities: You’ll get a chance to be creative, develop your communication skills, and
build your network of engineering contacts. You will also learn about using digital media and become
an expert in ICE’s qualifications processes.
Question: How do you effectively communicate complex information in an engaging way?
Projects
Institution of Civil Engineers