{"id":7226,"date":"2020-10-30T16:28:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T16:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/?p=7226"},"modified":"2024-08-30T13:22:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T12:22:11","slug":"the-institution-of-engineering-and-technology-iet-volunteer-karl-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/the-institution-of-engineering-and-technology-iet-volunteer-karl-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Volunteer \u2013 Karl Luck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Karl completed a master\u2019s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1982. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent much of his early career working for the military, including as an electrical engineer on board various Royal Navy vessels around the world, followed by a design and procurement role in the Ministry of Defence (MoD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Chief Electrical Engineer positions at Foster Wheeler and Snamprogetti came next, after which he joined WSP to head up its Power Systems team. In February 2019 he became Design Director at
Future Tech SCI Ltd, where he is the Technical Lead on critical infrastructure for data centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Personal development journey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Karl had joined the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) as an undergraduate. While working at the MoD in Bath, UK, he decided to become an IEE volunteer \u2013 this marked the start of a personal development journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was quite introverted when I was younger and am a bit of a technical bon, to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cJoining my local IEE Young Members Section denitely forced me out of my comfort zone: I got actively involved in planning and hosting events, which really boosted my self-condence. I progressed through the ranks and ended up as Chair.\u201d
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This volunteer experience enabled Karl to develop a range of leadership, motivational, communication and teamwork skills that have served him well throughout his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maintaining high standards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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After moving out of the Bristol area and into a challenging new job role, Karl put his volunteer activities on hold. In 2012, becoming an IET Fellow was the spark that re-ignited his passion for volunteering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt that the time was right,\u201d he said. \u201cI was leading a multi-disciplinary team of around 40 engineers and we were finding it difficult to source new recruits with the requisite knowledge and skills for heavy power. I wanted to give back to engineering by helping to maintain high standards across the industry. I also wanted to help develop people, by bringing them into the industry.\u201d
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Karl returned to volunteering as an IET Professional Development Accreditation Assessor. Working as part of a panel, he was responsible for assessing training programmes and awarding IET accreditation to those that demonstrated the provision of top-level learning, accompanied by support for professional development and career progression.
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It\u2019s a role he continues to enjoy: \u201cI have had quite a varied career. By sharing my own experience, I can help broaden their engineering horizons and highlight potential opportunities.\u201d
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In 2014 Karl took things to the next level when he became a member of the IET Professional Development Operations Committee (PDOC), which reports to the IET Registration and Standards Committee. \u201cMy role involved visiting companies to assess their graduate and training schemes, to make sure they complied with the requirements of the Engineering Council,\u201d he said.
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Five years later, he took up a further assessment role: IET Fellowship Assessor. \u201cTwo Fellowship panel members and the Chair assess each candidate\u2019s application to check that it meets the necessary criteria. It\u2019s very interesting, especially because it\u2019s not restricted to engineers \u2013 it covers all disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Future-tech\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Investing time and effort<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The IET\u2019s three core values underpin all Karl\u2019s volunteer activities: \u201cIntegrity is a big part of it because as volunteers we represent one of the world\u2019s oldest professional institutions. We strive for excellence in everything we do. And teamwork is essential on IET assessment panels \u2013 we all rely on each other to make sure we have covered all the bases.\u201d
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Karl believes firmly that in life, you don\u2019t get something for nothing: you have to invest time and eort in order to reap rewards.
Future Tech SCI generously gives Karl an additional week\u2019s leave each year to carry out his IET volunteering activities. \u201cOn average, I spend around 15 days a year across my various volunteer roles, so the extra ve days from my employer are a big help,\u201d he said. \u201cI make up the difference in the evenings and at weekends. If I\u2019ve used up my allowance, I\u2019ll take annual leave to carry out assessment visits.
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\u201cMy advice to any would-be volunteers is to immerse yourself in volunteering and do as much as you can. There\u2019s a lot of staff support available from the IET, as well as training. And there are opportunities to meet up with other volunteers, to share experiences and best practice.
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\u201cI\u2019ve been an IET Industrial Representative for around 20 years, first at WSP and now at Future Tech SCI. I provide a link between the company and the IET. It\u2019s all about promoting the IET and its opportunities to the workforce, as well as providing feedback from the company to the IET as part of a continuous improvement loop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A source of great pride<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of Karl\u2019s favourite volunteer roles is that of Professional Registration Advisor (PRA). \u201cCandidates for professional registration contact me at any stage of their career,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could be a case of giving advice to a new graduate on what to do next. Or I could be supporting someone who\u2019s been in the industry for 15 years and wants to attain Chartered or Incorporated Engineer status. Each candidate is unique and needs a tailored response from me.
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\u201cMost of the PRA role is done online these days. Candidates who are preparing to submit a registration form will send it to me for review. I give them advice on any gaps in their application and any wording they should rephrase. If I think they are not yet ready or are applying for the wrong registration category, I always tell them.
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\u201cIt\u2019s a source of great pride to me when I learn that a candidate whom I have advised through the Professional Registration process has been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To discover more about the IET and the opportunities<\/a> available. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karl completed a master\u2019s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1982. He spent much of his early career working for the military, including as an electrical engineer on board various Royal Navy vessels around the world, followed by a design and procurement role in the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Chief Electrical Engineer positions at Foster Wheeler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.future-tech.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}