DDC | In house development scheme approved by the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES)

DDC, specialists in highway drainage services, pride themselves on their team of innovative and dynamic personnel. The company pride themselves on their ‘can do attitude’ and working in close collaboration with their clients.

This attitude is showcased from the top down, with DDC continually looking to develop their people, increase their knowledge, and build on their skills base to ensure the best quality of service.

With this attitude running down the company hierarchy, DDC have developed an Applied Development Scheme (ADS), in accordance with, and approved by the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES). It was developed for DDC staff as the company hold the firm belief that investing in their people is the key to a more successful business.

The scheme has been created by DDC to help their surveyors and engineers firstly, become technical members of the ICES and eventually, full members of ICES.

Katie Holt, Development Officer of ICES joined the team and had a chat with the students involved

DDC Technical Director Carol Han is the company mentor and supervisor of the scheme, so all the plans and infrastructure are in place to make this a detailed, well-delivered scheme and not just a feeble box ticking exercise.

Carol told us:

“It’s a huge company focus at DDC to develop our people, and by aligning with a respected body such as ICES to provide ongoing CPD opportunities was something we felt provided an even better opportunity for our staff.

“In-house, we have personal development opportunities, but this collaboration with ICES gave us, and our staff, the opportunity to receive additional support in their development.

“ICES’ role in the scheme is to give structure to trainees’ experience, by following our competencies.  The idea of the competencies is that they cover all the aspects necessary for a surveyor to carry out their job well, including general skills and more specialist skills.

“Being a member of ICES myself, I’ve received great support from the institution and the opportunity for great networking. I hope this scheme will benefit everyone’s career life as it has been doing for me.“

The Applied Development Scheme is structured around 3 competencies:

• General
• Core Geospatial Engineering
• Specialist

Trainees get the competencies signed off by their line manager as they gain the experience (normally in several review sessions during the year).

These competencies then form the basis of an upgrade application once the trainee has gained sufficient experience to upgrade their membership to technical member or full ICES member level.

DDC’s Carol Han (furthest left) will mentor the scheme

We asked Carol about how complex these types of schemes are to integrate into the company. Carol continued:

“ADS are actually very easy to set up and run for a company.  The competencies form the framework of the scheme, and the senior staff within your company provide the mentoring and supervision.  It is then a case of getting the competencies signed-off at regular intervals until they are completed.

In terms of support for us, ICES staff will help at every stage of the scheme, from setting up the ADS to getting trainees through their review interviews.

“Additionally, the schemes are very cost-effective with the only costs incurred being the trainee’s membership costs.””

Please take a look at the ADS page on the ICES website

Recently, DDC held a launching event in their Wolverhampton office, where they celebrated the privilege of being part of this project.

Katie Holt, the Development Officer of ICES joined the team and had a chat with the students involved in this scheme. She held a very interesting presentation reaffirming the important role of ICES in the surveying industry.

With the scheme up and running, it’s now onwards and upwards for the first group of DDC staff involved in the ADS.

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