Proceedings 2002/2003 - IRSE

102
NINETIETH ANNUAL REPORT
3,595 valid licences at the end of the year. Sales of
the revised Professional Development Folder and
Licensing Scheme Logbook have continued at a
high level, with over 1,600 sold in 2002.
John Corrie has been Chairman of the Scheme for
the past year. Paul Mann has replaced Laurie Page
as the Network Rail representative, and David
Harford is due to replace Mike Moore as the
Telecommunications sector representative. Colin
Porter has relinquished the Chairmanship of the
Committee, but continues as the Licensing Scheme
Treasurer. The Scheme has recruited a new member
of staff, Gordon Thorne, whose responsibilities
include the checking of licence applications, and the
implementation of the Assessing Agent Surveillance
Visit plan. In January 2002 the ‘Scale of Charges’ for
the Scheme were increased in line with inflation.
The UKAS recreate-accreditation visit took place
in September 2002 and recreate-accreditation was
achieved although there was an increase in the number
of non-conformance reports raised against the
operation of the scheme. This was due to the high
level of applications being processed and the
consequent lack of resources to prepare for the visit,
rather than a fundamental defect in the operation of
the scheme. Remedial actions to clear the NCRs are
continuing, with regular progress reports to the
Licensing Committee.
The Scheme now has 25 assessing agents.
Twenty-four surveillance visits were completed
during the year, and two new companies, Union
Switch & Signal, Brisbane, and LTE Network
Communications have been approved as assessing
agents. Four assessing agents received unsatisfactory
reports. Two of these companies have since
completed the required remedial actions, and have
been reinstated. The other two companies are an
existing assessing agent that is suspended pending
a surveillance visit to review the implementation of
effective remedial actions, and a new applicant that
will be required to complete a further initial appraisal
visit. The continuing increase in the number of
assessing agents and the need to complete the
outstanding interviews of competence assessors by
the end of 2003 will significantly increase the
number of visits to assessing agents during the
coming year.
The Scheme continues to implement its decision
to base its new and revised competence standards
on the national standards produced by ‘The
Occupational Standards Council for Engineering’
(OSCEng). The competence assessor assessorqualifications
have also been upgraded from “being
trained to a standard exemplified by the NVQ
D32/33 standards” to “being certificated to the NVQ
A1 standard”, so that assessments for IRSE
Licences can be accepted as evidence for railway
industry NVQs. The imminent restatement of the
Network Rail and London Underground Ltd
requirements for signalling and telecommunications
engineers to be IRSE-licensed is expected to
significantly increase the assessment resources
required within the industry. Additional assessing
agents and appraisal team members are being
sought.
There has been significant development activity
on licence categories, although this has still to bear
fruit in the form of new and revised competence
standards. Not only are the new and revised
standards based on OSC Eng standards, but their
format has been redeveloped to provide the
workplace and competence assessors with more
guidance when undertaking assessments. The major
testing categories have been piloted, and the
rework, which was significant in the case of the
Tester-in-Charge category, is nearing completion.
The review of the Engineering Manager categories
has been started and the pace of this work will
increase, as the resources allocated to other categories
are reassigned. Work is also in hand on the
preparation of a ‘generic’ team leader category to
replace the Installation and Maintenance Team
Leader categories. The lower level competence
standards for the Installation and Maintenance categories
have been developed in association with the
RITC. The next amendment to the Licensing
Scheme documentation should include ten new or
revised competence standards.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The 89th Annual General Meeting was held at the
Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, on Friday
19th April 2002 when the composition of the new
Council was announced, as follows:
President: P W Stanley
Vice-Presidents: C H Porter
J D Corrie
Members of Council from Class of Fellow:
W J Coenraad A J Fisher
J D Francis F Heijnen
P A Jenkins F How
J M Irwin J Poré
D Weedon J F Wilson
Members of Council from Class of Member:
D S Angill D W Crabtree
R G Halse Mrs C Porter
P N Lane K L Walter
The formal proceedings included the adoption of
the revised Articles of Association that had been
circulated with the notice calling the AGM and this
was followed by the inauguration of the new
President, Mr P W Stanley, who gave his Presidential
Address. A transcript of this will appear in the
Proceedings.
COUNCIL MEETINGS
Eight meetings of the Council were held during the
year when the business of the Institution was
conducted. Much of the business, although routine,
is vital to the ongoing management of day-to-day
Institution affairs. The remainder of the business was
concerned with the strategic development of the
Institution and further extension of the Institution’s
activities in support of the training and professional
development of its members. Council is always
delighted to receive visits from colleagues around
the world and distinguished visitors to Council
meetings this year included Mr P Symons, Country