Any current chartership candidates may find this advice from Jeanette Castle, CILIP Assessor, useful.



Chartership Tips

These come from Jeanette Castle, CILIP Assessor

Her over-riding advice is that the submission should show not only what you have done but, more crucially, how your work and contribution made a difference.

Chartership
A key requirement is an ability to look beyond the service(s) and sector(s) in which you work : assessors are looking for you to demonstrate that you can see the whole profession and its relevance to your part of it.

For example you could link networking at a Living Library event with ideas for partnerships with other sectors/professions and make links across the common threads. 

It is helpful to make links between the supporting statement and the evidence in the portfolio through good use of cross-referencing

Criteria of Assessment are:

1.	Ability to reflect on personal performance and to evaluate service performance
2.	Active commitment to continuing professional development
3.	An ability to analyse personal and professional development and progression with reference to experiential and developmental activities
4.	Breadth of professional knowledge and understanding of the wider professional context

Personal Performance:

Much of this comes from the personal and evaluative statement, supported by independent assessment such as staff appraisal and other records.
You might find it helpful to use corporate documents, such as the framework for personal development – linking library strategy and development plan to your own job description and CPD needs.
Expect to see attendance at a CILIP chartership course or evidence of how this has been “compensated for” if a candidate absolutely cannot access an event.
Expect to see evidence of the mentoring partnership, and, where appropriate, of working together with other professionals, this could be in the workplace or through branch and group activities.

Professional skills

This will be summarised in the CV and supported by an evaluation of CPD events and activities, both complete and applied for and must include reflection on the outcomes.
It can be helpful to add an extra column to the PPDP template to add some evaluation, as the training was completed, so that it is a living document.

Service performance

An example could be to include the aims and objectives of the organisation and an evaluation of feedback from a customer survey, to an action plan. Candidates can refer to appropriate extracts from annual reports and audits, press articles etc to use in evaluating service performance. Assessors are looking for the ability to critically evaluate the service. An example is using the vision for the library and adding a comment on how you fit in with the achievements, your contribution and workplan.

Personal and professional development and progression

Demonstrate how your practice has changed as a result of learning.  This links to the analysis of personal performance. Would like to stress the inter-relationship between these two criteria.

Breadth of professional knowledge

Aimed at seeing contribution beyond own professional world
This can be demonstrated in a number of ways e.g.  through visits, professional reading, membership of discussion lists – analysis of good practice, showing you recognise transferable models. (Must not reinforce the misperception that you only learn about other sectors by visits!)
Two big areas – body of professional knowledge and code of ethics, also DEA2010 might be worth raising.

Core professional skills can be demonstrated here – links to Body of Professional Knowledge

Section 2

Portfolios

These should demonstrate good organisational skills, with contents pages and sections clearly marked so that items are easy to find.
Clear and well presented portfolio
Watch data protection issues like blanking out email addresses, inclusion of copyright protected material, personal names, identifier etc

Evidence

It is acceptable to add in some personal  comments as the evidence is your opportunity to demonstrate development and not just to be  a record of work

PPDP

Must see the plan and an evaluation of how the activities and events have contributed to both personal and service development and delivery. 
Candidates should update and review the plan as changes occur and also if opportunities come up

Mentoring

Keep a mentoring log with a brief summary, records of meetings and actions

Other Sources of Help and Advice

Don’t miss out on the help that is available from, for example, lis-la-charter, your CSO, branch and group discussion lists, Update etc. and CILIP communities : all excellent ways of asking questions and keeping up to date.  Above all, if you have any queries about any aspects of process or procedure contact the Qualifications and Professional Development Department [log in to unmask] They manage all aspects of the process and will give you unbiased and accurate information.