Fellowship Criteria

The Chartered Fellow grade recognises those who have demonstrated a substantial achievement or contribution to the quality profession. 

Applying for Fellow Grade differs significantly from applications to our other grades which involve competence-based assessments. Those applying to become Fellows have already met the requirements of our highest competence-based grade, Chartered Member, and have held that grade for a minimum of two years.

Fellow applications focus on establishing your contribution to and impact on the profession through the submission of statements and supporting evidence against our five Fellow criteria.

Fellowship interviews, if conducted, explore in more detail the candidate's portfolio and evaluate the extent to which these criteria have been met. 

Please carefully read the criteria and ensure you understand what is required of an applicant before proceeding.

Criterion 1 - Have furthered the objectives of quality through voluntary
contributions to the CQI

What we are looking for

Have you been involved in a Branch or Special Interest Group? Elected to a committee? Written for Quality World or our website? There are many ways to contribute to the life of the CQI and you should present as many contributions as you can, in each case outlining what you did, when you did it, and the difference that you made.

For example, if you are/were a branch or SIG Chair, what changed/improved as a result of your leadership?

What we are not looking for

Playing a part in the life of the CQI through attending events is not enough. This is about your demonstrable contribution.

Evidence examples

·         If you’ve written for Quality World, consider submitting the articles you’ve written.

·         If you are/were a branch or SIG committee member, consider supplying a reference from the Chair.

·         If you organised events, can you provide information on attendance numbers and do you have the feedback to indicate member satisfaction?

Criterion 2 - Are a peer-acknowledged expert with acclaimed contributions to a quality field

What we are looking for

Do you have a track record of writing and presenting about a quality subject? Have you been invited to join a project or committee solely because of your expertise? Do other professional networks or bodies that you are a member of utilise your expertise? What have others said about you and your knowledge?

In short – what is your area of expertise? Who, outside of your employers, has recognised your expertise? Are people asking you to write about it or present it? What has been the impact of your expertise in action?

What we are not looking for

One of the most common failings against this criterion is arguing that you are the quality expert within your company. Being the ‘go-to’ person in your company is not enough. We need to see that you have a reputation and standing that goes beyond your workplace.

Evidence examples

·         You can include evidence such as minutes, reports, articles, presentations or documents to support your statement.

·         You can include International Quality Awards (IQA) submissions, and feedback from judges.

Criterion 3 - Have carried out outstanding service on professional committee/s

What we are looking for

Not including committees in your place of employment, what committees have you served on? How long did you serve on them? What was your role? Did you lead any working groups? What changed as a result of your involvement? What was the longevity?

Your committee work should be relevant to the quality profession, for example, it might relate to but is not limited to Industry Standards and Codes of Practice, Regulatory Matters, Quality Principles, Tools and Techniques.

What we are not looking for

Again, we are not looking for someone who is simply good at committee work within the narrow confines of their employment. We are looking for someone whose knowledge and expertise are applied externally.

Evidence examples

·         You can include evidence such as minutes or reports if you’ve served on a committee.

·         You can include a reference from the chair of the committee  

Criterion 4 - Have developed and supported the careers of others, especially less experienced quality professionals

What we are looking for

We are looking for evidence of a commitment to the development of the careers of others that goes above and beyond the requirements of your job.

Have you given talks to groups of quality professionals, colleagues, stakeholders, or other non-quality professionals about quality or career progression? Have you mentored quality professionals? Are you a STEM ambassador? Have you taught quality related courses? Have you promoted the profession at career fairs?  Within your organisation you might have initiated a major change or improvement in how the organisation trains and develops its quality professionals. What was the result? Did you share this experience with professionals in other organisations?

What we are not looking for

We are not looking for good line managers who have developed their staff and seen them move on to greater things. We already assume that you are good in that respect as an MCQI. We are not looking for examples of training others as part of your work responsibilities or where you own a training organisation.

Evidence examples

·         If you have coached or mentored people in your work place who are either outside of your team or who started in your team and have since left but you have maintained the coaching/mentoring relationship you may include testimonials from these individuals.

·         If you have acted as a mentor on the CQI Mentoring Platform include details of how long you have been an active mentor, the number of members you have mentored through the platform, how you have supported them, and the impact your support has had. You may wish to include testimonials from your mentees.

·         If you have acted as a STEM ambassador do you have a STEM impact statement outlining your activities, time supporting others, and the number of students you have reached.

Criterion 5 - Have made a voluntary contribution to the objectives of quality through other voluntary means, including activities started as part of a work requirement but taken beyond the original brief

What we are looking for

This is your opportunity to provide other examples of how you have promoted quality that may not fall under the previous 4 criteria

The word ‘voluntary’ is significant. This should be an activity that you were not required by your employers to undertake.

However, if you started a piece of work through your employment and then it developed into something that required your involvement on a voluntary basis, this is acceptable.

What we are not looking for

Work-based examples that fall under your professional responsibilities.

Evidence examples

·         Consider submitting minutes/reports if you’ve volunteered on a committee, for example.

·         Evidence of having used quality principles to support the work of voluntary bodies such as charities, local societies and groups, schools or religious groups.

To achieve the grade of Fellow applicants must score 4 or 5 against at least three of the criteria.

Before you start writing your statements you should score yourself against each criterion to better understand (a) if you are ready to apply for Fellow and (b) where there are opportunities to undertake additional activities to improve your chances of being awarded the grade.

To score yourself, consider all the examples you have that are relevant to a particular criterion and the contribution and impact they demonstrate. Now weigh this against the scoring indicators listed below.

We highly recommend that you seek the support of a current CQI Fellow to assist you with your application. Sign up to the CQI Mentoring Platform to increase your chances of achieving the Fellow grade:

1.    Visit the Mentoring platform

2.    Create a Mentee account

3.    Within your Mentee profile:

a.    set your current grade to ‘Member’

b.    set your ‘Support need’ to ‘How to achieve the next CQI grade’

c.     In the Personal statement field write that you wish to achieve the grade of Fellow

4.    Click the ‘Find a Mentor’ button

5.    Refine the search criteria by selecting ‘Fellow’ under the Mentor membership grade field

Find a Mentor

When writing your criterion statements we recommend that you provide a summary of your contributions. For example, under the Voluntary contributions to the CQI criterion you might write: I have written X articles for Quality World magazine, I have been a branch committee member for X years, I have presented at X number of events to X number of attendees.

You can then choose a few of your key examples to write about at more length. Each of these examples should be written in a separate paragraph.

Each key example should cover the following points:

·         Situation – provide the context of your example

·         Impact – what has changed as a result of your actions

·         Longevity – how long have you been doing these actions

·         Above and beyond – how your actions go beyond your day job (if relevant)

Each criterion statement has a limit of 500 words. We strongly recommend that you attempt to write between 300 – 500 words per criterion statement. Anything less than this is unlikely to provide the necessary detail for the assessor to judge your contribution and impact.

While you may not have many examples for a particular criterion, we recommend that you attempt to write something for all of the criteria to show the breadth of your contribution to the profession. There may also be information you include in one criterion that can bolster your score in another, allowing you to achieve the grade.

While an example may be relevant to multiple criteria, specific examples should only be used once and should not be repeated across multiple criteria.

The interview is conducted by a panel of three people. Usually the panel comprises the CQI’s Executive Director for Policy (from a professional standards perspective), the CQI’s Head of Membership (from a membership criteria perspective), and a CQI Fellow (to provide a peer assessment).

All examples used within your application should be backed up with supporting evidence demonstrating how you have made an outstanding contribution to the quality profession. Refer back to Step 1 to see examples of evidence you may wish to attach.

Please ensure that any evidence uploaded is referenced by file name in your statements.

If you are successful with your application you will be invited to an online interview.

Invitation to interview is not a guarantee that you will be awarded the grade of Fellow, it is an opportunity for the interview panel to delve deeper into your activities to allow for an informed decision. If successful at this stage, you will be awarded the grade of Fellow. 

The interview format

Recommended presentation structure

Your presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes.

• Your background – 1 slide to discuss your career history.
• Individual criterion – 1 to 2 slides per criterion to demonstrate the depth and breadth, personal contribution, and impact of activities.

Presentation guidance

Focus on the criteria – you have 15 minutes to demonstrate how you meet the criteria to the interview panel. Therefore, keep your career history short and focus your time on your contribution to and impact on the profession.

Keep to the headlines – The interview panel will have read your submission in advance and therefore don’t need every single detail from your online application. Instead, seek to focus on the headline items that demonstrate the length and impact of your contribution to the profession.

Practice makes perfect – practice your presentation in advance to help you feel more confident and comfortable on the day. Practicing will also Ensure that you can finish the presentation in the 15 minutes allocated to you.  

Interview panel

The interview is conducted by a panel of three people. Usually, the panel comprises*:

·         the CQI’s Head of Membership (from a membership criteria perspective).

·         a CQI Board or Council member (from a professional standards perspective).

·         a CQI Fellow (to provide a peer assessment).

*Panel attendees may vary depending on staff and volunteer availability.