Creating a Successful CDR: Steps and Requirements

1. Introduction

2. Steps in preparing a CDR:

This section deals with the compilation of a Competency
Demonstration Report (CDR) describing your engineering
practice.

The flow chart below shows the steps you need to take in
preparing your CDR:
Complete Application Form

The purpose of the CDR is to demonstrate:
• how you have applied your engineering knowledge and
skills;

Assemble certified copies of academic testamur(s)
and associated academic transcript(s)

• that such application meets the competency standards
of the relevant occupational category in Australia.

Prepare Curriculum Vitae

You should be aware that the CDR must be all your own work.
You must carefully follow the instructions provided in
preparing your CDR. You should realise that you are
entering into a final assessment.

Identify Continuing Professional Development

Write three Career Episodes

The major assessable features of the CDR are your
narratives written in English of three career episodes and
a Summary Statement of the competency elements you
have claimed.

Prepare a Summary Statement of evidence for the competency elements

You should, where possible, type your CDR using a word
processor and remember to keep a copy.

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The CDR must
not be bound but presented in loose leaf A4 format.

Instruct IELTS Test Entre to post an original TRF to EA

Submit all specified documentation to Engineers Australia for assessment

Your CDR will be assessed against the competency
standards of the occupational category specified by you.
Engineers Australia will not assess your competencies
against an occupational category higher than the one you
have specified, but may consider assessment against a
lower occupational category if you are assessed as not
suitable for your nominated category.

3. Components of the CDR:
You must first complete the CDR Application Form.
This is available from www.engineersaustralia.org.au/
migration_skills
3.1 Declaration Page
Your Competency Demonstration Report must include the
following declaration (shown below).

Please Note
A submitted CDR which is incomplete when
submitted or which does not meet the stated
requirements will not be assessed.

Declaration:
The following declaration must be signed and presented
as part of your CDR submission:

All submitted material becomes the property of
Engineers Australia.

‘All statements of fact in this report are true and correct and I have made claims of acquired competencies in good faith.
The report is all my own work and is a true representation of my personal competence in written English. I confirm that I
understand that members of the engineering team in
Australia are required to display a commitment to exercising professional and ethical responsibility in all aspects of their work. I also understand that documentation submitted in
support of my application may be referred to the Department
of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) for integrity checking.’

Applicants must make copies of all documents sent
to Engineers Australia. Applicants who request
copies of their submitted documents will be charged
a AUD$80 administration fee.
Do not present documents in a bound format as they
must be dismantled for filing.

Printed Name:
Signature:
Date:
This Declaration Form is on page 3 of the CDR
Application Form, which may be downloaded from the
Engineers Australia website www.engineersaustralia.org.au/
migration_skills

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SECTION C

3.5 Identification of Continuing Professional Development
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the means
by which you keep up-to-date with developments in your
field of engineering after you have graduated. A brief
summary of CPD you have undertaken must be included
in your CDR. This CPD must take the form of a listing
(title, date, duration, venue) of:

3.2 Certified copies of qualifications and academic record(s) Certified copies of the testamur (degree certificate) and
transcript are mandatory documents. Many applications
for a skills assessment are delayed because documents
are not properly certified. See item 5 of Section A for full details of the certification requirements.
Documents not properly certified will not be accepted,
and your application for assessment will not proceed.

• formal post-graduate study;
• conferences at which you have delivered papers or
attended.

3.3 Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume
Engineers Australia requires a full summary of your
education and engineering work history to gain a full
perspective of your engineering workplace practice.

• short courses, workshops, seminars and discussion
groups, conferences, technical inspections and
technical meetings you have attended;

Your CV must be a complete record of your activities and
must not contain significant periods where no activity is
recorded.

• preparation and presentation of material for courses,
conferences, seminars and symposia
• service to the engineering profession (volunteer work,
board or committee volunteer, mentoring, etc)

For each workplace provide:
• organisation name and location including contact
details where possible
•

dates and duration of employment

•

title of position occupied by you

•

• private study (includes books, journals, transactions,
manuals, etc)

your defined role (provide a duty or appointment
statement where available) and/or a brief
description of your activities

Your CPD listing need be no more than one A4 page. There is
no necessity to include certificates from each course.
3.6 International English Language Test Result
All applicants applying to have their skills assessed by
Engineers Australia are required to provide evidence of
their English language competency. See item 4 of Section
A for full details of the English competency requirements.

Your CV should be no more than three A4 pages.
The CV is to be a chronological listing of employment, not
projects.

3.7 Writing your three career episodes
3.4 Evidence of Employment
If in your CV/Resume you claim engineering work
experience of 12 months or more, then you must provide
documentary evidence (originals or certified copies) of
employment and certified translations into English where
necessary.

You are required to present an account of your
engineering activities on each of three separate career
episodes.
A career episode is a documented component of your
engineering education and/or work experience which
captures a particular period or distinct aspect of your
engineering activity. It needs to clearly demonstrate the
application of engineering knowledge and skills in the
nominated occupation, not the acquisition of knowledge.

The documentary evidence is to include; company
letterhead (including name and location details), date of
document, name and status of author, dates and duration
of employment, title of position occupied and a brief
description of duties/tasks/responsibilities.

It may be:
• an engineering task undertaken as part of your
educational program;

If a career episode is based upon engineering work, then
you must provide documentary evidence of employment,
as above.

• a project you have worked on or are currently
working on;

This instruction applies to the standard assessment
service only. Go to Section D for further instructions on
the additional assessment service for the identification of
periods of skilled employment.

• a specific position that you occupied or
currently occupy;
• a particular engineering problem that you were required
to solve.
Each career episode must be in your own words and must
be written in English.

15

SECTION C

Do not present large amounts of technical material. It is
recommended that each narrative be a minimum of about
1000 words and a maximum of about 2000 words.

b) Background (200 – 500 words)
This sets the scene and provides the context in which you
were studying/working. It should include such things as:

The career episode, being written in your own words, will also provide evidence to the assessor of your communication skills.

• the nature of the overall engineering project;
• the objectives of the project;
• the nature of your particular work area;

Please Note
Career Episodes must be written in the first person
singular clearly indicating your own personal role in
the work described. Remember, it is what ‘I did’, not
what ‘we did’ or what ‘I was involved in.’

• a chart of the organisational structure highlighting your position;
• a statement of your duties (provide an official duty
statement where available).
c) Personal Engineering Activity (500 – 1000 words)
This is the body of the narrative and the key assessable
component. In this section you must describe in detail
the actual work performed by you. It is not sufficient to
describe the activity performed by a team or group - your
own role must be clearly identified. Remember it is your
own personal engineering competencies that are being
assessed.

Each career episode must clearly demonstrate the
application of engineering knowledge and skills in the
engineering discipline for which the applicant seeks
recognition.
That is, describe 'what you did', with and emphasis on
personal actions, eg "I designed...", "I investigated...".
Excessive technical detail (diagrams, photos, calculations,
tables) are not required.

This section should include such things as:
• how you applied your engineering knowledge and skills;

Each career episode should emphasise any engineering
problems identified and any particular problem solving
techniques used by you. The purpose of this is to assess
the nature of the contribution which you may have made
to the engineering project or task - particularly if that
contribution was of a novel nature or critical to the
implementation of the task/project.

• the tasks delegated to you and how you went about
accomplishing them;
• any particular technical difficulties/problems you
encountered and how you solved them;
• strategies devised by you including any original or
creative design work;

Please note that it is not sufficient to merely describe
work in which you were involved. Your own role in the
work must be clearly described by you, and be identifiable
in the assessment.

• how you worked with other team members.
d) Summary (50 – 100 words)
This section sums up your impressions of the engineering
activity and your role in it. It should include such things as:

You must number each paragraph in each of your career
episodes. The following system is recommended;
Career episode 1 (paragraphs 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc)
Career episode 2 (paragraphs 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc)
Career episode 3 (paragraphs 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 etc)
This is necessary to construct the Summary Statement.

• your view of the overall project;
• how the project fared in meeting the goals/requirements; • how your personal role contributed to the project.

Each career episode should follow the format shown
below:

3.8 Preparation of the Summary Statement
Complete the three career episodes, then analyse them
for the presence of ALL of the competency elements for
the occupational category you have chosen.

a) Introduction (approx. 50 words)
This introduces the reader to the career episode and
should include such things as:

The elements for each occupational category are listed in
the following pages. The Appendix gives a detailed
description of each competency element for each
category.

• the chronology - the dates and duration of this career
episode;
• the geographical location where the experience was
gained;
• the name of the organisation;
• the title of the position occupied by you.

16

SECTION C

The results of your analysis are to be reported in the form
of a Summary Statement of competency elements
claimed. The Summary Statement cross-references the
relevant set of competency elements with the particular
paragraph in your Career Episode where each
element occurs. To do this, you will need to number the
paragraphs in your career episodes.
The process is represented schematically below:
1. Career Episode

2. Career Episode

3. Career Episode

Summary Statement of competency elements
claimed by you indicating how and where applied

You must download and complete the appropriate summary
statement for your nominated occupational category.
The summary statement templates are available at
www.engineersaustralia.org.au/migration_skills
These are guides only. Do not attempt to restrict your
Summary Statement to one page only.
Applicants may prepare their own summary table, but
must include the complete set of competency elements
for their nominated engineering category.
Please note, one Summary Statement only is to be
provided covering all three career episodes combined.

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PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
Summary Statement
These are the competency Units and Elements. These elements must be addressed in the Summary Statement (see Section C). If you are applying for assessment as a Professional Engineer, you will need to download this page, complete it and lodge it with your application. For details, refer to the Appendix, Pages 28-32. Competency Element

PE1

A brief summary of how you have
applied the element

KNOWLEDGE BASE

PE1.1 Knowledge of science and
engineering fundamentals
PE1.2 In-depth technical competence in at
least one engineering discipline
PE1.3 Techniques and resources
PE1.4 General Knowledge
PE2

ENGINEERING ABILITY

PE2.1 Ability to undertake problem
identification, formulation, and
solution
PE2.2 Understanding of social, cultural,
global, and environmental
responsibilities and the need to
employ principles of sustainable
development
PE2.3 Ability to utilise a systems approach
to complex problems and to design
and operational performance
PE2.4 Proficiency in engineering design
PE2.5 Ability to conduct an engineering
project
PE2.6 Understanding of the business
environment
PE3

PROFESSIONAL ATTRIBUTES

PE3.1 Ability to communicate effectively,
with the engineering team and with
the community at large
PE3.2 Ability to manage information and
documentation
PE3.3 Capacity for creativity and
innovation
PE3.4 Understanding of professional and
ethical responsibilities, and
commitment to them
PE3.5 Ability to function effectively as an
individual and in multidisciplinary
and multicultural teams, as a team
leader or manager as well as an
effective team member
PE3.6 Capacity for lifelong learning and
professional development
PE3.7 Professional Attitudes

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Paragraph in the career episode(s)
where the element is addressed