Statement of personal achievement

Step 6 – Drafting your statement of personal achievement (SPA)

The Fellowship assessors will consider your SPA in detail and you should not underestimate the time that it will take to complete.

Your statement of personal achievement should:

• be typewritten in English;
• be clearly set out using the ‘categories for assessment’ headings below;
• not contain any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors (it helps to have someone else proof read your SPA);
• comprise about 1000 words;
• represent you in a professional, formal manner;
• review what you have achieved by effectively providing an executive summary of your achievements;
• be submitted with your application for election to Fellowship.

Listed below are six categories the assessors will be looking at when they consider your SPA. Please use these headings in your SPA to ensure that you demonstrate coverage of all six areas. Under each heading ensure you give enough detail to demonstrate your personal achievements.

Candidates can be, and are, rejected on their SPA. Usually the Assessors feel that unsuccessful candidates do not address adequately each of the sections below – especially the last three. By using the headings and following trhe guidance carefully you will greatly enhance your chances of success.

The categories for assessment

Candidates can be, and are, rejected on their SPA. Usually the Assessors feel that unsuccessful candidates do not address adequately each of the sections below – especially the last three. By using the headings and following trhe guidance carefully you will greatly enhance your chances of success.

Overview

This sets out, in two or three paragraphs, how you have set about your programme and any key changes during it.

Plan

You should restate the key points of the plan you drafted on enrolment onto the Fellowship programme and also show how you achieved the objectives set. You should also indicate how you acquired or sought out new knowledge and what skills you employed in doing so. You should be able to see some of the effects of this process on your career.

Changes to plan

If your Fellowship plan changed, you should set out what you changed and why you changed it. It may have been for external reasons (eg, a change of job or other circumstance) or for internal reasons (eg, you were unhappy with your progress on your major achievement or identified a new opportunity which you wanted to exploit). The effect of circumstances beyond your control should not be ignored and events, which have caused delay, should be identified. You should also highlight how you were affected by or made use of unplanned opportunities that arose. It would be particularly helpful to indicate whether these opportunities were based on situations which you initiated, or unexpected ones which you were able to exploit. Remember, some situations that involve a great deal of pressure and require innovative approaches often provide insights and development benefits not readily apparent at the time. If you have been involved in any activity which did not feature in your plan but from which you have learned something, describe how it arose, what it involved, how it contributed to achievement of the objectives you originally identified and how it might have contributed to a new aspect of your development. When reflecting on your activities you should consider to what extent you have experienced personal or business benefits through the practical application of what you have learned and exactly how these benefits arose.

Key learning points

What were the key things you learned during your progression to Fellowship? How did you learn them? These should include ‘soft’ facts (eg, things you learned about yourself or how your views have changed) as well as hard facts (eg, major achievements). This should include the negative experiences as well as the positive ones.

Key skills and knowledge acquired

During your time on the Fellowship programme you will have learned a number of new skills and increased your knowledge base. List the main items. This evaluation stage deserves special attention as it produces a summary of achievements, which demonstrates how you met your original objectives. For any area where you achieved less than you originally planned, reconsider whether the target originally set remains valid or whether you simply require more time to achieve it.

Intentions for the future

What will you do differently in the future? Fellowship is about making a commitment to professionalism as well as achieving a qualification. In this section, set out how you plan to put the lessons of your Fellowship programme to practical use in the future.

Before writing your SPA you may find it helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What were the most important things I learned and why were they the most important?
• How have I applied new skills and knowledge in my work?
• In analysing the application of these new skills and knowledge, can I produce evidence of the circumstances in which they were applied?
• What other reading and development have I done outside my Fellowship plan to improve myself further and what do I now need to do for the future to continue my development as my career progresses?

The members of the Fellowship Assessment Board evaluate every SPA very carefully. The most common reason why a SPA fails to meet the required standard is because it does not demonstrate the candidate’s self-awareness. It is vital that your application illustrates what you have learned and in particular what you have learned about yourself as a result of negative experiences. You should not be afraid of admitting that you have learned from your mistakes as well as your achievements. In fact, such candid self-awareness is extremely valuable.

It is important that you include sufficient information in your SPA to enable the Fellowship assessors to evaluate your application. Any other correspondence between you and the CII will be kept separate from your application and so the SPA must cover any issue which you feel is relevant to your application. You must include sufficient detail to demonstrate that you have completed all the steps to Fellowship and you should identify how the elements of the application have been useful to you in your work. The Fellowship assessors will also wish to see you demonstrate your ability to reflect on what you have achieved and how you will move your career forward.

Please download the Statement of Personal Achievement Application Form.

Examples of SPAs

The following examples have both been presented to the Fellowship Assessment Board. Both have been accepted and the candidates are now Fellows of the CII. All names and company details have been changed.

• Example 1 – Brian Bond, Pin no: 111111G Statement of personal achievement
• Example 2 – Jack Jones, Pin no: 199999F Statement of personal achievement
• Example 3 – Ben Best, Pin no: 1122333C Statement of personal achievement
• Example 4 – Kate Kitts, Pin no: 111111F Statement of personal achievement
• Example 5 – Peter Paige, Pin no: 1117777D Statement of personal achievement
• Example 6 – Thomas Todd, Pin no: 1188888A Statement of personal achievement
• Example 7 – Phillip Painter, Pin No. 0012115521S, Statement of personal achievement
• Example 8 – Francis Franks, Pin No: 0010110100Z, Statement of personal achievement
• Example 9 – James Journal, PIN: 0012111111Z, Statement of personal achievement
• Example 10 – Alison Art, PIN: 2124411Z Statement of Personal Achievement
• Example 11 – Gavin Gold, PIN: 007007G Statement of Personal Achievement