FIDIC Credentialing report

FIDIC Credentialing

FIDIC Credentialing Ltd (FCL) officially launched its commercial operations in 2021 and during the last year has made significant progress. Its product development phase has now been completed, with its five launch programmes thoroughly designed before being officially launched. The next year’s focus will be on business development, streamlining internal procedures and the preparation for accreditation according to the international standard ISO 17024.

FCL is run by its management and certification boards, whose members met for the first time in person in July 2022, following numerous online working meetings. Members had the opportunity to exchange ideas and strategise in person on the critical issues to help improve the already impressive work being done by the volunteers of the various FCL committees and sub-committees.

The increased interest in FCL programmes is also a result of the great work and commitment of the members of our boards and committees, who ensure through their involvement and subject matter expertise that the programmes are applicable worldwide. To support the committees, the FCL management team has already started the process of further enhancing the membership of the working committees, through the inclusion of new members this year who will be able to contribute further to the development and implementation of FCL certification programmes.

The FIDIC Certified Adjudicator programme was the first programme to be globally launched by FCL last year. Since then, 54 legacy adjudicators were re-certified under the programme’s new structure. Apart from being able to prove their adjudication skillset, they have also remained listed on the FIDIC President’s List of Approved Dispute Adjudicators. At the same time, the programme opened up to new candidates who were eager to participate in the rigorous assessment and prove their skills. Following the implementation of ten exam sessions from June 2021 to June 2022, 55 new candidates successfully completed all the programme’s requirements, received their certification and gained the right to be included in the FIDIC President’s List of Approved Dispute Adjudicators. The interest for this programme is still high and another exam session, the last in 2022, is scheduled for Q4 this year.

The FIDIC Certified Consulting Practitioner programme was the second programme launched by FCL in November 2021 and is tailored to early career candidates who come from a broad range of educational backgrounds and are working in, or have experience in, a consulting practice in the engineering and infrastructure industries. The programme has run three exam sessions so far with the successful participation of 24 professionals, while it is expected to run a further session in December 2022.

The FIDIC Certified Contract Manager is the most popular of all the programmes and candidates are required to participate in a single examination and prove that they possess and can apply their knowledge of FIDIC contracts throughout the project’s lifecycle. The first exams were implemented in December 2021 and so far, through three exam sessions, 47 professionals have celebrated their accomplishments and gained this international certification. The demand for this programme is so high that a further two exams are expected to run between now and the end of 2022 - one in September and one in December.

The FIDIC Certified Trainer programme is one of the most important programmes for the global FIDIC ecosystem. The legacy trainers participated in December 2021 in a specifically designed procedure and FCL has already issued 38 certificates in the Fundamental Construction Contracts subcategory and 32 in the Silver Book subcategory. Ten Chinese candidates received their renewed certificate, allowing all of those certified or re-certified by FCL to showcase that they have both the training skills and the technical expertise in their field to deliver the relevant training courses to a high standard. At the same time, the programme for new candidates is ready and expected to run its first exams in Q4 this year.

The FIDIC Certified Consulting Engineer programme is now ready and was officially launched in June 2022. The programme is accepting applications from qualified senior executive professionals who are looking to demonstrate their commercial and business expertise within the engineering and infrastructure consulting environment. The first exams are expected to run in November this year and the programme’s structure and content guarantees the same success, as it has in China during its pilot phase, from which already 731 candidates have received their renewed certification. Whilst the above progress is obvious, it is worth mentioning that FIDIC certification programmes are highly demanded across the globe. So far, the FCL management team has facilitated the participation of candidates from 72 countries in the exams. Apart from professionals wishing to gain a qualification from a global leader, this success is also a result of FCL’s effective business development and marketing activities.

The FCL management team has participated in informational sessions, conferences and meetings organised by FIDIC member associations and is working to further promote the programmes through active engagement with all FIDIC regions and members. At the same time, the implementation of an organic digital marketing campaign, through the creation of flyers, videos and articles published and shared through FCL’s corporate social media accounts, has contributed a great deal to an increased brand awareness of FCL and its certification programmes.

New functions will be introduced before the end of the year, such as the issuing of digital certificates and badges with enhanced security, verification and authentication attributes, as well as the implementation of exams through an online invigilated environment, which will eliminate time-zone differences and barriers. This will also allow more candidates to participate in the online exams from the comfort of their home or office.