Institution news
Louise Kemp CEng BEng(Hons) MBA FIMechE MRAeS is Chief Engineer Aerostructures and Head of Engineering UK at QuEST Global. Based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, she travels between the company’s other UK bases in Bristol, Chester and Derby.
Louise began her career as a stress engineer for GKN Aerospace, going on to become Chief Engineer. When part of GKN was acquired by QuEST Global in 2011, she also became Head of Engineering UK.
As lead for the team at QuEST that set up a Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS), Louise became a Chartered Engineer in 2013 and is now a Fellow of the Institution and an Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO). The MPDS was officially launched in January 2015 and received Institution Accreditation in February 2016. It is supporting up to 30 engineers in their drive to become Chartered Engineers.
It is some achievement: in 2012 there were no Chartered Engineers in the company. Projections are that 25-30 will be Chartered by 2020, within a cohort of 250-300 engineers.
Louise says: “I have always looked for opportunities to take on roles that will challenge me and help me develop my capabilities. Development never comes by staying within your comfort zone; you always need to push yourself and I am finding that my own professional development is being fuelled by supporting others with theirs.”
Louise coordinates the MPDS, which supports about 15 graduate – or developing – engineers, five CEng mentors and seven delegate mentors, with a further five candidates waiting to join the scheme. She says the Institution is a very good fit for QuEST Global, as an engineering organisation which works across multiple industries, and that when researching which professional engineering institution would suit the team, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ approach really stood out.
Louise says it is too early to quantify the MPDS’ impact in terms of business development, but that developing its engineers according to UK-SPEC and in partnership with the Institution is a great benefit to QuEST’s reputation.
She says: “Hopefully the benefits for the business will be clear in increasing the number of chartered engineers who are dedicated to professional excellence and integrity in the workplace.
“It is also playing an important role in recruitment and retention. Our young engineers can see that the company is looking after them, they are being supported, mentored and tutored towards UK-SPEC, talking openly about their work, applying their work to their applications for chartership, shaping their career and ambitions. This goes for those experienced engineers in the business, too, who are eligible for professional registration now. The scheme is bringing people together from different experience levels across the company, through our structured meetings and our participation on this learning curve together.”
Paula Porcar Serrador and Thomas Ettinger are two of the developing engineers who are entering the ‘fourth year’ stage of MPDS.
Paula says: “I find the MPDS scheme a very helpful tool which encourages me to keep a log about my day-to-day job. With my mentor I review the UK-SPEC competences against my experience, helping me to identify my strengths and weaknesses to improve as an engineer.”
Thomas adds: “The scheme helped me set more tangible objectives while planning for my development. It also helped me keep track of my own work and evaluate myself.”
Jill Dwyer, Business Development Executive at the Institution, says: “Louise is a great champion of professional development and a real role model for the developing engineers at QuEST. Thanks to her drive and commitment, the company has a well-structured development scheme which is supporting engineers through their early career as well as offering an opportunity for mentors to enhance their leadership and coaching skills. Anyone considering setting up MPDS should take a look at what Louise has achieved at QuEST.”
Louise adds: “The support from the Institution has been excellent. As ILO, I’m working in two areas now: in the South West, with the business development team of Alan King and Jill Dwyer; and now our Derby team is also building up its MPDS. We have great support there from Lara Mallett, BDM for East Midlands, and Howard Canning, who has done some tutoring.
“The real success will be apparent when we see what happens when the first wave of applicants put in their applications – around nine engineers who are entering their fourth year MPDS with chartership as their goal.”
Contact your Business Development Manager or find out more about professional registration and MPDS.