In this guide
Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with IStructE before applying.
On the individually managed route, your personal mentor guides training and reviews progress against the Core Objectives. They also sign your IPD final report forms.
Choosing mentors for different areas
The guidance allows several mentors whose experience is appropriate to the objectives. Consider who can review each part of your work. A contractor may help examine construction evidence; someone responsible for fee budgets may help with commercial evidence.
Mentor and supporter roles
A mentor guides development and signs IPD final report forms. A supporter named in the initial application confirms that you are a fit and proper person to become a Member. The supporter does not confirm that you are qualified. One person may fulfil both roles, but the responsibilities remain separate.
Finding a mentor outside your organisation
Ask your local Regional Group for advice. Its members are under no obligation to act as mentors. If you cannot find someone suitable, consider the retrospectively collated route.
What a good mentor does
Look for
- Meets you on a regular, agreed rhythm rather than when you chase them.
- Reviews your progress against the Core Objectives across your project experience.
- Tells you plainly which objectives are thin, and how long fixing them will take.
- Helps you get the experience you are missing: a different project, a site secondment, a package with a budget on it.
- Reads your draft final report forms and says where a reviewer will push.
- Says when you are not ready, and what would change that.
Watch for
- Writes your evidence for you. The forms must be your own account of your own work.
- Signs forms they have not read.
- Confirms an objective is achieved: only IStructE determines that, at the review.
- Agrees with everything. A mentor who has never told you something was weak is not mentoring.
For candidates: choosing and using a mentor
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.