You need to provide a statement outlining your employed or voluntary roles and say how your current role demonstrates the four areas of the competence matrix - see below. It is the most important part of your application as it tells the Validation committee about how your skills and experience demonstrate the criteria and helps them reach a decision.
You can use the Statement of competence template to write your text and upload this to the online form, or write directly into the boxes in the online form.
Please note that incomplete new applications online cannot be saved and returned to, so it may be easier to complete the statement template and upload this to the online form.
For further information on how the competence categories apply in specialist areas of practice, please see our supporting specialist competence matrices. You can use these alongside the main competence matrix to see how your work fits into the criteria and help write your statement of competence.
Employed or voluntary roles
Please give detailed information about your role and responsibilities for your current and most recent roles over the last two years. Use each heading of the competence matrix (below) as a guide. You need to explain how you demonstrate the four areas – knowledge, autonomy, coping with complexity and perception of professional context – giving specific work examples.
You can find some example statements in the 'Templates and further guidance' section below.
For any roles you've undertaken more than two years ago, please give a brief description of the responsibilities held, including any career breaks where relevant.
Writing your statement
You can approach your statement of competence in different ways, but we recommend that you use the four areas of the competence matrix as headings, write something for each and describe a specific example of where you applied this in your role.
Competence matrix for Associate (ACIfA)
| Knowledge | High level of working and background knowledge relevant to area of historic environment practice. Demonstrates competence in a broad range of activities within that area, in accordance with relevant professional standards. |
What you need to demonstrate | - Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of archaeology and the historic environment relevant to your area of historic environment practice
- Give examples which show how you apply that knowledge and understanding, and keep that knowledge up to date, in a broad range of activities within your area(s) of practice and to the appropriate standard.
- Use the professional and technical language that you know and use in your role.
- Demonstrate that you understand and apply the legislation, policies, professional standards and industry processes and procedures relevant to your work.
- Give examples of the work that you do/have done and the knowledge and understanding of the historic environment, including relevant legislation and policies, that underpins it.
- Describe the steps you take to verify that your work, and that of others, where applicable, meets the appropriate CIfA Standards, any relevant specialist codes of practice or standards, and your employer’s quality standards.
- Demonstrate that you are aware of underpinning theory, current academic research and/or broad research agendas relevant to your area(s) of practice.
- Give examples that reference relevant research frameworks, current thinking, theoretical or methodological frameworks
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| Autonomy | Considerable responsibility for own work using own judgement and autonomy, in a wide variety of contexts, but within an established framework. Where applicable, may take responsibility for the work of others and/or the allocation of resources. |
| What you need to demonstrate | Describe your role within a team, how you take responsibility for your own work and how you make decisions. Where applicable, include your responsibility for the work of others.
- Give examples where you have led work in an established framework and applied professional judgement in your work. How do you know when it’s appropriate for you to make a decision and when to consult with others? What steps do you take to ensure you’re fully informed before making a decision?
- Explain how you evaluate your decisions and reflect on these to further develop your professional judgement. Give examples of your approach to keeping your knowledge and skills up to date through continuing professional development (CPD).
- Demonstrate that you understand your role within the wider team
- Explain how the work you do relates to other people in your team or wider organisation. Who looks to you for help and who do you answer to?
- Explain how you’ve set an example to others in your team, and/or where applicable, trained, guided or helped someone else benefit from your knowledge and skills.
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| Coping with complexity | Copes with complex situations through deliberate analysis and planning. Most activities are complex and non-routine. Can recognise and resolve potential conflicts of interest within an established framework. |
| What you need to demonstrate | - Demonstrate how you solve problems relating to your work
- Give examples of effective problem solving you have undertaken. Describe a problem or a challenge that you needed to overcome in your work and how you resolved it. What steps did you take to identify a solution; who did you consult with?
- Demonstrate how you identify and try to resolve conflicts of interest within an established framework.
- Give examples of the potential conflicts of interest you encounter in your work – for example, with stakeholders or in project planning – and what frameworks you use to identify and help resolve them.
- Show that you are aware of when to escalate to or involve others when dealing with complex or sensitive issues.
- Give examples of what helps you decide that a particular issue is complex or sensitive and needs to be escalated. What steps can you take to learn from these situations, so you are able to apply your own professional judgement in the future?
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| Perception of professional context | Sees actions at least partly in terms of longer-term or wider goals. Understands the ethical requirements of the Code of conduct and uses them to guide and review own practice and, where applicable, that of others. Upholds and promotes the values of the Institute to work in the public interest. |
| What you need to demonstrate | - Demonstrate how you critically evaluate your work in relation to professional codes, in particular the ethical requirements of the CIfA Code of conduct.
- Give examples of how you evaluate your work and your decision-making against the CIfA Code of conduct to ensure that you’re practising ethically. Are there areas where it has been difficult to comply with the principles or rules of the Code? How did you resolve these?
- Demonstrate that you understand the roles of key historic environment sector organisations and stakeholders relevant to your area of practice and that you understand the implications of your work within the wider team, your organisation, or the historic environment sector as a whole.
- Give examples of the organisations you come into contact with and what they do. Who does your organisation answer to? Who are the stakeholders and beneficiaries of your organisation and its work?
- Provide examples where you have successfully delivered, and/or supported others to deliver, public benefit.
- Give examples of how you have helped other people(including your team, where applicable) access information about the historic environment and/or shared your own knowledge and understanding with other people. You could also give examples where you have engaged with individuals or communities, and contributed to the future management, conservation or interpretation of a heritage asset or to the generation of new knowledge.
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Qualifications (where relevant)
Please list any relevant qualifications, including title, institution and date of completion and a brief outline of the areas covered.
If you work in academia, please provide a more detailed outline of your qualifications.
If you do not hold any qualifications, you are still eligible to apply.
Additional relevant information
Please include any additional information that may be useful for the Validation committee to take into consideration when assessing your application. For example
- any additional volunteer work in the sector
- any societies or organisations you are involved with, including volunteering for CIfA
- if your experience has been gained outside the UK, please include some background information about how the profession operates in that country and how your role fits within the profession
You can upload a job description or CV to the online form, but you must include a statement of competence (above).
List of projects/publications/grey literature
Please list any relevant projects, publications or grey literature from your work in the last two years. Where work is co-authored or the authors not defined, please indicate which part(s) you were responsible for.
We also suggest you highlight the examples of work (see section below) you are providing to support your application.
If you do not have any publications, you are still eligible to apply.
