FIDIC Past Presidents' YPMTP Scholarship Awards

FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Award

Guidelines for an application

1.      Introduction

The objective of the FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Awards is to recognise future industry leaders within FIDIC member firms in less developed countries.

The FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Award nominate rising leaders within the FIDIC member firms in less developed countries to participant annually in the FIDIC Young Professional Management Training Programme (YPMTP). Participants of the programme are exposed to an intense training curriculum to help prepare them to becoming the future leaders within the consultancy engineering industry.

Participants complete the programme during the annual FIDIC Conference.

Commitment is required from the individual, and to a certain extent the nominating firm in terms of time and some contribution to costs. However, with the addition of these elements, the scholarship becomes both quite substantial and indeed an honour.

The FIDIC Awards include registration in the FIDIC Young Professionals Management Training Programme (YPMTP).

2.      Value of the scholarship:

The prize will be:

a)      nomination to the FIDIC YPMTP (value Euro 2,750)

b)      presentation of a certificate for the "FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Award"

c)      Payment of Euro 1,200 to the winner, as a contribution to costs of attendance at the FIDIC Annual Conference.

3.         Eligibility

a)      The entrant must be a permanent, full-time employee of a Member Firm of a FIDIC Member Association that is based in the country of the Member Association that qualifies for the scholarship. This must be stated on the Application Form (see below).

b)      The Member Association must be from a less developed country which qualifies for 75% reduction in FIDIC membership fee (fee factor 0.25).

c)      The entrant must be under 35 years as at the date of entry (January of the training year)

d)      It is expected that the entrant will be at the junior-early management level of a firm. The entrant should be nominated by a senior manager(s) of their firm and a statement made to the effect that the nominated person has demonstrated exceptional skill in communicating with clients and by written reports and shows promise in leadership. This can be backed up by external references (e.g., by a contractor, client or other consultant). The nominator should be aware that the prize would be an opportunity for their nominee to develop further skills, but will involve a time commitment next year.

e)      The entrant must demonstrate a personal commitment to continued professional development by providing a summary of CPD’s undertaken within the last three years. This record will remain confidential and be returned to the entrant as soon as the judges have satisfied themselves that the entrant has a personal commitment to CPD. 

f)       Only one scholarship will be awarded to any one Member Association.

g)      The entrant must be a citizen, national or resident of the country of the Member Association.

h)      The winner should remain employed by a FIDIC member while they are taking up the FIDIC programme.

i)        The applicant needs to be fluent in English.

4.      Application procedure

The Application Form is attached to the end of this document. Information to be supplied includes:

a)      name and address of entrant

b)      firm name

c)      Member Association membership

d)      name and address of nominator

e)      statement of nominator.

In order for FIDIC to gauge the level of interest in this award, please forward Expressions of Interest (company name, nominator name and entrant name(s) only) by 15 December 2018 by email to Silvia Fossati, FIDIC Training Manager, sfossati at fidic.org.

An application form, and reminder of the materials required for the full submission, will be forwarded to each nominator and entrant. 

The application form, with its submission must be received by FIDIC no later than 10 January 2019.

5.      Submission

The Submission forms the full application to the FIDIC Scholarship Awards. One original copy and two photocopies should be sent to FIDIC. Please use A4 format, spiral bound or stapled. Alternatively the submission may be sent electronically

The Submission includes the following, all of which must be bound into each copy. There are two parts: the Background material indicates eligibility and information about the person, and will not be graded; the Leadership material will be examined and ranked.

1.    Background

a)      Application Form - signed by entrant and nominator;

b)      Statement of the eligibility of the entrant: this is included on the application form;

c)      Statement of CPD record: this needs to include a record of the courses or conferences completed; informal CPD undertaken etc. (Note that courses or training undertaken as part of CPD will not be ranked in any order of merit of any qualifications received.). This statement should be verified by a supervisor and include a list of training, hours undertaken, technical or business training, office skills (e.g., information technology) but not courses or training for non-business reasons;

d)      Brief biographical note: this will be used for publicity material only. This should be no more than two paragraphs.

e)      One, publication quality, colour photograph or high resolution digital image, should be included with the submission package. This will be used for publication and publicity. Photocopy or digital prints are not satisfactory for this purpose. The photograph will be returned. Digital images need to be at least 600 dpi, scanned from a postcard-size photo.

2.    Leadership

a)      Statement of Leadership Qualities: a statement by the nominator, of the entrant’s ability as a leader within the consulting engineering industry. This should be no more than one page. Mention: what special technical and management skills this person demonstrates, and how you observe they deal with clients and contractors, that what has prompted you to consider them a future leader;

b)     The role of the entrant as a consultant in the community.

Please read requirements carefully. This should be written by the entrant.

-          The entrant will provide a summary of recent projects on which he/she has had a significant role and describe that role, emphasising where leadership qualities were important - e.g. client liaison, team management, initiative rather than technical skills. Clients will not be contacted, unless the client is also the nominator. Please select three or four good examples. Mentioning a lot of minor ones will not necessarily be to the overall benefit.

-          No more than one page is required on any one project and no supporting material (such as illustrations or copies of reports) is required.

-          Emphasis should be less on the description of the project itself as on the role the entrant played as a consultant, that demonstrates leadership skills. The following will be taken into account.

-      level of responsibility and reporting lines (appropriate to the size of projects).

-      understanding technical details of the project.

-      liaison with others involved in the project (e.g., client, community, contractors).

-      management of safety and/or environmental issues (if appropriate).

-      other issues appropriate to the project.

-           The size or nature of the project(s), and technical innovation will not be taken into account, in themselves. The competition is based solely on leadership and communication skills. However presentation skills such as spelling and readability will be taken into account.

-           A brief indication of the entrant’s non-work role in the community can be added.

-           A supporting letter from a client or another project member (not within the same firm) can be provided, to reinforce some of these points.

c)     Oral communication: the judges retain the right to short-list entries. Short-listed entrants may be interviewed either in person or by a pre-arranged telephone interview. The winner may be asked to speak at a FIDIC function.

6.      FIDIC Young Professionals Management Training Programme

The prize will comprise nomination to the FIDIC programme. This involves the future leader in a structured management development programme using on-line meetings with other young leaders from all over the world. 

There is a programme of exercises to work through, which will take some commitment from the individual, which culminates in the international participants meeting at the FIDIC Conference venue for a few days before the conference where they work together on a presentation to the conference. For details of this programme refer to www.fidic.org/ypmtp2019

FIDIC is confident that winners of the FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Award prize will be more than competent to take part in this programme.

The scholarship includes:

-         the nomination from FIDIC;

-         the fee for the programme (Euro 2,750);

-         payment of Euro1,200 as a contribution to travel and accommodation to the FIDIC Annual Conference as part of the YPMTP programme

Note that it does not include:

-          payment for the person’s time to undertake the programme;

-          specific costs travelling to or during the FIDIC conference

Reporting back

After the FIDIC Conference, FIDIC will ask that the winners prepare a short report on the experiences of the programme for inclusion in the newsletter and/or Young Professionals website, and use in publicity.

The winners may be asked to speak at FIDIC events and to de-brief the following year’s winners.

7.      Restrictions on uptake of the Prize

The eligibility criteria include a number of limitations which affect the uptake of the YPMTP:

-           Citizenship/ Residency: the eligibility statement must include this. The person will be representing his/her country, therefore have a commitment to his/her country.

-           Engagement in consulting firm: For the prize to be valid the person must remain employed by an FIDIC member consulting engineering firm whether in his/her home country or overseas. The scholarship shall be forfeited if the person moves to a non-member firm or outside the industry (the reasoning behind this criterion is that the person will be partly representing the Member Association in this programme and at the FIDIC conference, therefore their firm needs to be associated with the Member Association).

-           Age limit: the under 35 limit is consistent with the YPMTP.

There is no obligation for the FIDIC judges to make an award if, in their opinion, entries received do not reach a standard sufficiently worthy of merit. 

Download the application form:FIDIC Past Presidents_application_form.

FIDIC Past Presidents' Scholarship Award

Application Form

ENTRIES FOR THE AWARD MUST BE RECEIVED BY EMAIL BY FIDIC BEFORE 10 JANUARY 2019.

I (nominator) confirm that the entrant is an employee of a FIDIC member firm and meets the criteria for entry as stated in the guidelines for the FIDIC Scholarship Awards.

Signed (by nominator) _____________________________

PLEASE ATTACH ALL SUPPORTING MATERIAL WITH THIS APLICATION FORM (refer to Guidelines)

Your submission should include:

-               Application form - signed

-               Statement by nominator (see Section 5.2a of Guidelines)

-               List of CPD undertaken within the last three years - signed by supervisor as a true record (see Section 5.1c of Guidelines)

-               Description of selected significant projects on which the entrant has worked and of the entrant’s role in these projects (see Section 5.2b of Guidelines)

-               Short biographical note and photograph (5.1d of Guidelines)

I agree that the above information is accurate to the best of my knowledge and that my name and reference to my work may be used by the nominating Member Association and FIDIC for publicity purposes should I be adjudged a finalist or winner of this award.

I am a Citizen / Resident of: __________________________. I am under 35 years.

Signed (by entrant): _________________________________________       Date: _________________

For further information, contact:

Silvia Fossati, Training Manager, FIDIC Secretariat, Tel +41 22 799 49 00 sfossati at fidic.org