Membership and licensing

Supervised professional experience and the logbook

Graduates complete a period of supervised professional experience before they can be registered to practise. It must be recorded as you go.

The requirement

Graduates join RIA as associate members and complete supervised professional practice before they can be admitted as chartered members. Chartered admission requires a minimum of one year of professional practice experience; your annual graduate membership fee of RWF 100,000 becomes payable six months after your professional training begins.

An engineer reviewing plans on a construction site

Supervision

Who may supervise

Your training must be supervised by a professional member of the Institute with at least three years of professional practice experience. That trainer signs the approval of your training firm and writes the recommendation letter that accompanies your application for chartered membership.

The logbook

The logbook is a record of your professional training: the projects you worked on, what you did on each, and the periods covered, countersigned by your trainer. It is a required document at application, alongside your CV, your notified degree and your CPD or training certificates.

A practical warning

Record it as you go

Experience that was not recorded at the time is difficult to evidence later. Candidates reconstructing two years of work from memory at the point of application are the most common cause of a delayed registration. Fill it in weekly; it takes minutes.

FAQ

My supervisor has left the firm.

Have them sign off the period completed before they go.

My firm does not do site work. Is that a problem?

If the requirement covers site experience, yes — and it is better to discover that now than at the interview. Speak to the education committee: {contact}.

Download the logbook template

Record as you go. Reconstructing two years from memory is what delays most applications.

Download the logbook template See the next examination dates