IMCA E-Portfolio – an update with Julian Nelson

For a long time, there have been mutterings about CVs, assessments and ensuring the professional development of freelancers and full-time staff is recorded fairly and comprehensively. As a result, mid-2018 saw the launch of the IMCA competency assessment portfolio. Eight months on we caught up with Julian Nelson, one of the key architects, to find out how the initiative is going.

“I would say that it’s going as well as might have been expected – but I am very ambitious for this to take off and deliver the results the industry is calling for, so I presume I’d always want it to be at 100% but we are some way from this,” says Julian when we spoke on the phone.

“It took us a long time to get to this position, and the intention was that all agencies and freelancers would have engaged with it by the start of the year. It’s not entirely happened as I’d like to see but we’re collecting feedback continuously and working on targeting key areas to improve that.”

One of the biggest issues facing the future of the e-portfolio is the willingness of agencies to sell it to their people. Julian accepts that there have been difficulties in ensuring that everyone understands what is required and how it can be fulfilled.

“I recently spoke at a seminar where I heard a variety of opinions from contractors and agencies. There’s a degree of uncertainty, like where the verifier sits – whether it’s with the contracting company or the agency. As far as I’m concerned, we have to put our money where our mouth is: we have the ability, we have the trained assessors and we have the technical knowledge. As far as Fugro is concerned the verifier sits with us.”

Of course, we’ve heard anecdotally and understand first-hand that persuading people to provide feedback when they’re facing mounting deadlines and under incredible pressure isn’t easy. When often getting called back to a boat depends on your relationship with the senior crew, freelancers can be reluctant to add to their list of demands.

This is something that Julian is keen to address. “I can’t speak for all the other companies but at Fugro, the party chief is not the only assessor. Most of our senior personnel are trained to do this.”

“Naturally there will be times when the team only has two people, and you will know that asking for feedback for the e-portfolio is an extra requirement. But for the vast majority of people, the teams they work on will be able to facilitate that.”

“Are all the people engaged and prepared to support this? Well, yes but I think we need to appreciate that this is a learning curve for us all. Have they been told to provide feedback? Yes. Will they do it? Only time will tell – but they’ve got to be asked in the first place. The more they expect it, the more readily it will happen.”

“There is one core message that we have to communicate with our freelancers and full-time personnel alike: evidence to support competence is something we now expect.”

Not every section requires third party engagement. The first, a self-assessment process, takes around 15 minutes to complete. Without this, advises Julian, freelancers may lose out on opportunities.

“If someone can’t be bothered to at least take this first step, then I would question whether there is a place for you. This is exceptionally important. Gone are the days when we can rely on a CV to prove competence. I need to know that if I am putting someone onto a job, that they have the correct standards of technical expertise. They’ve got to be able to do the job for their own safety and for safety of those around them.”

“I want people to go offshore and return home safely. I want them to go back to their families without any problems. Before the e-portfolio, there was genuinely no reliable way to know that the person beside you was genuinely technically-competent. So, while it might not be perfect – it’s far better than the alternative.”