Hi Martin... and welcome to the Community.

I've 'moved' your post to a more appropriate group.

You'll find a good deal of really helpful advive from personal experience in there. 

Thank you for your offer of sharing the experinece of your own journey, too. That would be great.

Hi Steve
Thanks for the welcome and the signpost.
I’ve logged on to the portal and read through the various guides on there regarding experience assessment and the actual assignments.
Kudos to CIPD for providing a helpful checklist of how to plan out the 8 weeks until submission.
This week is all about familiarity and next week looks like planning though I intend to get started with some planning this week as I know from previous studies that time disappears fast and life happens.

In reply to Martin:

I'll pass that on to the team, Martin. Thank you.

In reply to Martin:

Hi Martin - Does the checklist come once you have called and paid? I'm about to commence ...

Hello Shona

Yes - It’s in the experience assessment candidate guidance pack on p7. I found it mega helpful as it gives you week by week objectives to complete to keep you on track. There are also examples on p18 of what is expected in the impact report.

If you want more information or general support, I’m happy to bounce ideas.

I’ve completed all objectives up to week 3 and I’m now preparing to turn my scribbles in to answers for the knowledge and impact report.

In reply to Martin:

Hi Martin
That would be great

Update to say I’m now underway with the Knowledge and impact report.
The guide to experience assessment states you should plan out your examples in week 2 ahead of drafting your answers in weeks 3 and 4.
I cannot understate the value in doing this as the report really does begin to write itself if you have taken time to prepare.
Some boxes are obviously easier to fill than others but a constant referral back to the profession map soon help to refresh what it is we do and bring fresh reminders of when we’ve met each criteria in the past.

Also time flies. The plan really helps you get organised.

I’ll post a further update soon. Right now I have one report to finish and another to start and the next two weeks will definitely fly by.

In reply to Martin:

@Martin I struggled with this idea too but I found it useful to brainstorm examples of "what and impact" of some key strategies over the last 5 years, really early on which then I reffered back to when completing the assessment

Deadline day is Monday.
All reports are now finished barring a final proof and supporting evidence is uploaded.

I’ve said it throughout and I can’t stress enough that a simple read of the candidate guidance will really help you structure your time. The timetable and examples were certainly a big help and I’ve taken time to plan regular blocks to get answers written.

It’s quite hard to keep to the word count so be prepared for some serious editing to meet the requirements.

In terms of what’s left, it really is just a final read and then press submit. I have my PD booked for mid August and so I’ll post again to update on how that went. I’ve never been assessed by a professional discussion before so this will definitely be new for me.

Until next time…

In reply to Martin:

Hi Martin, congrats on getting this far, your posts are helpful. I’m thinking about going this route and was wondering if you had to do a case study? You haven’t mentioned that. But threads I’ve read from 2019 do mention that. Or is the case study part of the two reports?

Thanks

George

In reply to Georgina:

Hi George
Thanks for your reply. There wasn't a case study as such but there was an article to read and reflect upon. The one assigned to me was all about People Analytics and the link between tech and HR. This was a relatively small portion of the overall submission.
I'm about to post about the professional discussion! Thanks for your response. I hoped that this thread would be useful to anyone considering undertaking experience assessment and I'm pleased that you have found my journey helpful.
Martin

Today was my professional discussion (PD). This was probably the part of the assessment process I was most anxious about as I have little to no experience of being assessed in this way. To date, I have been assessed by submitting exams, completing coursework, or writing dissertations.

Again, let me refer to the candidate guidance for experience assessment as it details a few hints and tips, along with examples of how you can evidence impact. The CIPD refer to this as not the what but the so what. I took this to mean, don't just describe, describe and evidence the purpose and value that your work has created.
The guidance suggest you review your submission (Knowledge ad Impact report, Behaviour report, and Professional development report) and make notes about the impact of each example that you have talked about. It's also helpful to note down the things you wanted to say but didn't have the word count to say or they simply popped in to your mind after you had pressed submit.
The other big tip in the guidance was to review the profession map and collect extra examples of impact in these areas in case you haven't quite hit the mark or you need to expand on a point.

So how did it go? Well that is the big question as I won't know for 4-6 weeks whether or not I have passed my experience assessment. What I can say is that my assessor was really friendly and I felt at ease within the first few minutes. The assessor referred to the pages of my submission she was referring to and I had a print out of my submission to follow along with accompanying notes.
We spent about 1hr 30 on the knowledge and impact report and then had a coffee break. We then returned and did around 45 minutes on the behaviour report as the assessor advised that I had covered some of the criteria in the first part of the session. The last 20ish minutes were on the professional development report, the areas I identified as strengths and weaknesses and the feedback from the two people who provided feedback for me as part of the assessment process.

I felt there was a clear structure and I appreciated the assessor taking the time to talk about her career and experience and explore mine as it helped the conversation to flow early on.

If you've started the process already then my advice is that you absolutely need to prepare for your PD but ultimately the time flies quickly and there is no way you will have time to say everything you want to say.

If you haven't started yet, I hope my experience will in some way help you to understand whether experience assessment is for you.
I'm happy to answer any questions you have about anything I've written here and I'd like to take the time to thank forum members who have responded to this post, as well as CIPD, as you've all been extremely helpful.

I will post my result here as it appears. Fingers crossed.

In reply to Martin:

Martin - thank you so much for keeping us all updated as you have progessed along the EA journey. It sounds like it went well today - fingers X'd - and I know that others will really value the experience you have shared so freely and openly with us here.

Nice one 

Steve - thank you for your warm words of encouragement.

So much is written online about gaining registration via the “traditional” qualification route and so little about experience assessment.
EA appealed from the moment I saw it on the CIPD website and so I felt there would be benefit to the profession in sharing my journey.

In reply to Martin:

Thanks Martin. I have my EA tomorrow and found your post very helpful.

Jacqui