Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with IStructE before applying.
The ten Core Objectives describe IPD through specified minimum standards. At interview, you must demonstrate that you meet every objective.
These are levels of responsibility, not a progress bar
The three standards describe how you hold the work, not how much of it you have seen.
Knowledge is understanding. You can explain the subject and how it applies, and a reviewer can question you on it.
Experience is having done it: independently, or under supervision. Someone may have been checking, but the work went through your hands.
Ability is doing it without supervision, and being competent to advise others. That last clause is the one candidates under-read: at Ability, you are the person someone else brings the problem to.
The practical consequence shows up in how you write your report forms. The guidance is blunt about it: if an objective is set at Ability, do not describe your work in the language of experience or knowledge. Reviewers read the words you chose.
The ten objectives and their minimum standards
| Core Objective | IMIStructE | MIStructE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Professional Standards and Engineering Responsibility | K — Knowledge | K — Knowledge |
| 2 | Communication | B — Ability | B — Ability |
| 3 | Concept Creation and Design | E — Experience | B — Ability |
| 4 | Analysis and Sizing | B — Ability | B — Ability |
| 5 | Materials | B — Ability | B — Ability |
| 6 | Sustainability | E — Experience | E — Experience |
| 7 | Construction | E — Experience | E — Experience |
| 8 | Health, Safety and Risk Management | E — Experience | E — Experience |
| 9 | Management | E — Experience | E — Experience |
| 10 | Commercial and Legal | K — Knowledge | K — Knowledge |
From the current Incorporated-Member and Chartered Member IPD guidance, read side by side.
The shape of the requirement
At Chartered Member level the standards break down as 4 objectives at Ability, 4 at Experience and 2 at Knowledge. At Incorporated-Member level it is 3, 5 and 2.
That distribution tells you where the weight sits. The objectives set at Ability (communication, concept and design at Chartered level, analysis and sizing, and materials) are the ones where you must be able to work unsupervised and advise. They are also the ones where thin evidence is most obvious under questioning.
How to use these pages
Each objective page sets out the official title, the intent statement, the minimum standard for both grades, and then the Forum’s own account of what strong and weak evidence look like, what tends to work in a portfolio, what to ask yourself, and where reviewers commonly take the questioning.
Work through them with a project in front of you, not in the abstract. The evidence matrix is for recording what you find as you go.
Official sources
Selected publisher pages were rechecked in September 2026. Other source records were last checked in July 2026. Open the latest official document before relying on a requirement.