The Institute’s 10,000 incorporated members are expected to hear at the end of January whether the ICIOB designation will be scrapped from the list of grades.
Staff at the CIOB are currently combing through consultation responses to the proposed changes, which are seen as a means to encourage more ICIOB members to move on to full MCIOB status. ICIOB members represent a quarter of the membership.
CIOB chief executive Chris Blythe said the results of the survey would also be assessed by the Members Forum — and recommendations put to a meeting of the Trustees on 28 January.
Blythe said early indications of those that took part in the consultation survey, which was sent to the 39,000 members and 6,000 student members during October and November, indicated that the majority of members were in favour of the changes.
However, those voting to retain the status quo were, on the whole, members that would be most affected by the dropping of the ICIOB grade. Blythe said that the breakdown of voting by grade of membership would be analysed in detail and taken into consideration when decisions were made — as would comments made on the survey form and the opinions of those who had written in to the CIOB directly.
The CIOB is concerned that the ICIOB grade, introduced 15 years ago, is counter-productive, with too many members sticking at the non-chartered status rather than going on to do the professional review and getting chartered status.
However, there has been criticism from a number of CIOB members to the scrapping of the designation, particularly those who would not qualify to move on to MCIOB and instead would go on to the associated grade (ACIOB status).
The debate sparked a raft of comments on LinkedIn and CM’s website. One member, Michael Cook, commented: ”My job role has diversified since becoming an incorporated member 10 years ago. A lot of hard work went into four years of study via the CIOB Examination Route and to have the designation watered down is a kick in the teeth. I have just not had the time to pursue the next stage. If CIOB persist with the downgrade I will not renew membership.”
If the proposals are carried ICIOB members would have a grace period to upgrade to MCIOB membership. The proposals also outline a new graduate category of membership. It has no designatory letters and members would be expected to achieve MCIOB within five years or move to the AssocCIOB grade.
For our original article and member comments on this story, please click here Plans for ICIOB divide membership
