You may recall that I have been working on CILIP Fellowship for a few years. I chartered relatively early and easily – the feedback that I was given on my submission was that I was working above the level usually required for a Chartership submission – and had assumed that I wouldn’t become a Fellow as, at that time, Fellowship had very onerous restrictions meaning that I would not be an appropriate candidate.
I felt pretty strongly that CPD was important so as soon as the new revalidation system became a thing, I made use of it and I have revalidated annually since but, other than that, assumed that was the end in terms of professional qualifications. I considered ILM or PRINCE2 etc. but that was going to be it for CILIP portfolio creation!
This changed once CILIP started promoting Fellowship as something to which mere mortals could aspire. Obviously, at that point, I thought I might as well make use of the CPD I was doing and see where it led.
In theory, at least, I rather like the new system. You look at a list of criteria, mark where you stand, plan what to do to improve, do things, mark yourself again and then submit a portfolio showing and reflecting upon all of that. In practice, I find working towards Fellowship a pretty dispiriting experience.
To start, I was (I felt) already on the borderline of seniority even under the new regulations and yet over the few years since I started people who are objectively more senior than me have been told not to apply or have failed. People who manage entire library services, people who are far more reflective, people who have contributed more to the profession etc. etc. If it were one person, I could assume they just didn’t do a good portfolio or didn’t read the guidance but it is now a really significant number. Speaking as someone who wasn’t sure about applying anyway, hearing that multiple people who are clearly working at a fellowship level are failing makes me think there’s definitely no point in bothering.
To be fair, the guidance on the process is a genuine issue. I’ve attended in person events and webinars, read the book, gone through the VLE, reviewed handouts and picked up anything else that might help me and the key thing that jumps out is how contradictory the available information is. For example: should I include every event and training course that I have ever attended in my annotated CV? Obviously not, the assessors clearly have better things to do than read that but it is specifically stated in at least one place that I should.
There are still, after this many years, no example Fellowship portfolios available; not even one redacted portfolio available. Not at events, not on the VLE. I know that everyone’s career and therefore portfolio is different but at least if I see something, I have some idea of where I stand. Not to mention, I might avoid the trap that one colleague fell into where, as far as I can tell, the assessors were looking for a particular wording and so failed them because they didn’t work out how the assessors would want things phrased!
The VLE, obviously, is another story and not one which needs me to rant about it! I understand from academic library colleagues that VLEs aren’t generally great to use (and certainly neither of the two I used during my studies filled me with joy) but the CILIP one does seem particularly painful especially the interaction between the Portfolio part and the rest. I am not convinced that there is any benefit to having this system rather than just printing a portfolio to PDF and then uploading or emailing it as required.
So, why am I bothering to post? Because I have a draft portfolio. I have compiled evidence, I have reflected, I have done two PKSBs, my CV and job description and annotated them and my draft evaluative statement is there. During chartership, this is the part where I celebrated. I knew I needed to reflect more in places but I had an initial draft which could be improved and tweaked and the end was in sight. As a fellowship candidate, I just feel depressed. I know I have improved my practice. I think I have contributed to the firm and the profession. I have folders of evidence.
However, none of this makes me sure:
- that I have been working at the right level – significant; substantial; whatever. Is my contribution enough of a jump from Chartership level? I think I am hampered slightly in that my previous portfolio was at too high a level which makes this harder to judge but everyone seems to have the same crisis of confidence. What is a “significant contribution” to librarianship? How do you “evidence substantial achievement in professional practice”? If visits were enough at chartership level then should being on a committee be enough? But what if you were on a committee back then? Is that improvement enough?
- That working at the right level and reflecting upon my practice is sufficient. It feels like even people who know the criteria inside and out, who have good evidence in a number of areas, have reflected upon it and have even been told that they are working at the right level, still aren’t hitting some extra special switch – they don’t use the right wording or their evidence isn’t new enough or it is too focused or too broad…
- That I can work out what the unwritten rules are in enough time to ensure I can jump through the hoops sufficiently well to get these letters after my name at some point!
My draft portfolio isn’t as finished as it should be but I am struggling to find the motivation to complete a portfolio that I am now almost certain will be rejected. I will make sure it is finished soon and submitted so I can get on with the process of providing additional information or scrapping the portfolio and starting again. Hold me to it. I’m hoping it is the former as the submission fee has already gone up since I started this process and paying twice would really rub salt into the wound!
Once my mentor gets back to me, I’ll need to do some more reflective annotation, tidy up the documents I have, try to put the documents into some sort of logical order on the VLE, work out how to submit on the VLE and then wait for my rejection email. Hoping to get all of that bar the waiting done by the end of the summer!