Demonstrate your professional experience and practice
This path to Chartered membership recognises professional capability and previous qualifications and is a commitment to maintaining up-to-date knowledge of housing issues. It is aimed at experienced housing professionals who want to demonstrate that they have the knowledge required to lead people and manage change.
This programme recognises professional capability and previous qualifications and is a commitment to maintaining up-to-date knowledge of housing issues.
Chartered membership is a demonstration and a recognition of your housing expertise, your contribution to the housing profession, and your commitment to professional and ethical standards.
What does the programme cover?
The programme will require you to reflect upon your professional capabilities and learning approaches to demonstrate your knowledge of contemporary housing issues and appropriate skills and behaviours for housing work.
This programme covers the following themes:
- Contemporary housing issues
- Knowledge, skills and behaviours
- Reflective practice
- Professionalism, professional standards and ethics
- Personal and professional development.
What are the benefits?
- All study is online, there are no course attendance requirements
- The first stage of the programme, the assignment, can be completed in four months
- The topics covered by the programme are relevant to a range of roles within housing
- The reflective assessment process supports personal and professional development
- The interview provides an opportunity to engage in conversation with experienced housing professionals
- You will achieve CIHCM and receive confirmation that you achieved CIHCM status through the EPR route.
To apply for this route you need to meet one of the three eligibility criteria below:
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You have worked in a housing organisation or the residential built environment for five years, two of which are at management level working as a senior manager or head-of-service and you have a degree level qualification in a related field to a housing career or a minimum CIH Level 4 qualification
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You have worked in a housing organisation or the residential built environment for three years and you are a fully qualified member (chartered member/fellow) of another relevant professional body related to housing
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You have more than five continuous years’ experience working as a senior manager or head of service in a housing organisation.
If you work in an academic setting you can access the programme providing you can evidence practical understanding/experience of housing through some or all of the following:
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You might have worked in housing practice before you became an academic or are currently a board member of a housing association or a similar organisation
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You have researched and published on an aspect of housing practice
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Through your teaching, you disseminate information on housing practice, and how skills, competencies and behaviours to work in the housing sector can be developed and enhanced.
How will I get assessed?
You will be assessed in two stages:
- Stage one: A 5,000 reflective written assignment that has to be complete within four months of the start of your programme
- Stage two: A professional interview which takes place once the assignment has been successfully completed.
The assignment is broken down into four components:
- Three case studies which demonstrate a reflection upon your current role in the housing sector, and your ability to think reflectively, act professionally and behave ethically
- Your approach to reflective practice
- Your application of professional standards and professionalism, using a case study
- An evaluation of your future development needs and future contributions to the housing profession.
You will be required to deliever a presentation in front of a panel of experienced housing professionals. This will be followed by a series of questions, designed to encourage discussion, relating to the programme themes.
Individuals, both inside and outside the UK, will be notified of the arrangements for the interview after successful completion of the assignment. Successful completion of both the assignment and professional interview will confirm that you have achieved the standards for chartered membership.
You are required to demonstrate and present a case on how your professional experience and practice shows that they meet the requirements of chartered membership, which are to:
- Maximise the positive impact of your work with individuals and communities
- Deliver services that are designed to maximise the positive impact on customers
- Work with partners to improve effectiveness
- Contribute to the profession, sharing experience and supporting innovation
- Communicate effectively – taking care to select the right style and method for the audience
- Apply the professional standards framework to the daily role, embracing a reflective practice to contribute to the professionalism of the organisation and the wider sector
- Have an ethical approach to your work - using the CIH ethical framework when faced with dilemmas
- Ensure that you have the right skills and knowledge for the job – scanning the horizon to predict future challenges and preparing effectively
- Embrace non-discriminatory practice and challenge behaviour which works against equality and diversity principles of good practice, reflecting on steps taken and improvements needed for equality, diversity and inclusion
- Support initiatives for delivering services which are socially responsible
- Promote and engage with policies and processes which conserve resources and support sustainable development.
It should also demonstrate how your professional experience and practice shows:
- Your contribution to the housing profession
- The strategic direction of your organisation and how it meets government housing policy
- Your experience in managing resources (people and/or teams)
- A reflection on your professional experience and the importance of professionalism and professional standards
- Your practice of continuing professional development, working to the code of conduct, code of ethics and the CIH professional standards
- How you continue to influence policy and practice agendas locally, regionally and nationally.
What support will I receive?
Although the route is based on self-study, as well as having access to online learning materials designed to support the specific themes of the programme, study skills and guidance on how to complete the assignment, you will also be allocated a tutor who will advise on academic requirements of the programme and who will assess your assignment.
You will be advised to secure a mentor from housing practice who can offer support, guidance and advice from a professional practice perspective.
Additional information
A registration fee of £1,300 for UK-based candidates applies. Candidates outside the UK will be advised separately of the fee.
Watch our video from Michael Braithwaite, CEO at Blue Door, as he talks about his experience with the CIH's experienced professional route (EPR) to Chartered membership CIHCM.
"The learning I undertook as part of the experienced professional route has enabled me to identify areas for improvement in my day-to-day role and has also fine-tuned the tools I have available to put successful change management into place."
