Member (MCIfA)

To prepare for your application, please refer to the useful links below and information in the other sections to ensure you are familiar with the application process. You might need to familiarise yourself with the work of CIfA, our Standards and Code of conduct to show that you understand and work in accordance with them.

Your statement will form the basis of the professional review interview so please include specific examples you can talk about, this assists the panel members in formulating their questions. If you are a new applicant, we recommend using the statement template, which is a Word document you can come back to, as you cannot save the online form.

Please use the links below to help you with your application and understanding ethical competence.

Application useful links

• Recorded guidance (YouTube) taking you through the application process (10.08 mins).
• Performance criteria (MCIfA) - detailed guidance and examples you should include can be found in the drop-down panel below.
• Professional pathways - unsure if you are ready to apply for MCIfA? Please sign up to our bulletins with hints and tips to apply (members only), or contact us at membership@archaeologists.net.

Ethics useful links

• Resources for professional ethics - including the ethics database, CIfA professional practice paper and e-learning module (free to members, non-members pay a small fee) and ethics case studies.
• Current and upcoming events - we will advertise workshops about ethics and applying here.

Deadlines to submit applications​

Please note if applications are incomplete or haven't been completed in accordance with the guidance they are likely to be rolled over to the next deadline date and interview window.

• Apply anytime from 27 November 2024 to 27 January 2025 for professional review interviews two-week window from 10 March to 21 March 2025 for 13 May committee meeting - please note this is on a first come basis due to capacity of the volunteers who undertake the interviews.

To be eligible for professional accreditation at Member (MCIfA) grade, you need to be able to demonstrate the appropriate level of competence in four areas:

• knowledge
• autonomy
• coping with complexity
• perception of professional context

Knowledge

1) Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of your area of historic environment practice using appropriate professional and technical language.

For example

• Give examples which demonstrate that you understand and apply the legislation, polices, frameworks, strategies, professional standards, industry best practices and compliance processes relevant to your area(s) of work.
• For example, set out the legal, policy and professional context you work within. Make sure examples of work that you include refer to relevant legislation, policy, standards, etc.
  Be prepared to discuss, and critically evaluate, how they apply to your work in your professional review.

2) Show how you analyse and apply underpinning theory and/or current research to your work and how you evaluate established and new techniques and approaches. Where applicable, explain how you monitor others using these techniques.

For example

• tell us about your approach to keeping up to date with theoretical and methodological developments in your area of practice and discuss relevant research and how it has informed your work.
• give examples where you have taken an innovative approach or adapted an established methodology in response to a particular challenge.
• tell us about how you review your own work, and that of others where applicable, in the light of theoretical and/or methodological developments.

Autonomy

1) Describe how you plan, manage and assure the quality of your work and, where appropriate, that of others and explain the approaches you have used to achieve successful outcomes in a leadership role.

For example

• tell us about your approach to your work and how you ensure it meets professional and organisational quality standards
• give an example where you led colleagues or stakeholders to deliver a piece or work, project or initiative and what the impact of that work was. Did the work achieve the outcome intended and can you show how your leadership contributed to that?

2) Demonstrate that you take responsibility for assessing gaps in your own knowledge and/or skills and, where applicable, that of others and that you address them through Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

For example

• tell us about your approach to keeping your knowledge and skills up to date
• give examples that demonstrate how you ensure that you, and your team where relevant, have the knowledge and skills to successfully deliver your work.

Coping with complexity

1) Explain how you manage your workload when there are multiple demands, interests or sources of data to be taken into account.  

2) Describe and critically evaluate how you have addressed complex areas within your work and the sources of information you use to support decision making.

3) Demonstrate that you are able to take responsibility for exercising professional judgement to solve problems.

For example

• tell us about your approach to decision making and to managing your workload. How do you balance multiple and/or conflicting demands or data sources to achieve outcomes which are consistent with your obligations as a professional archaeologist (ie in accordance with the Code of conduct)?
• tell us about particularly complex problems or issues you have encountered and describe how you approached them. These might be archaeological problems, or they might be complex competing interests or priorities. What are the frameworks and techniques you draw on to resolve complex issues? Reflect on whether the approach you took or the decisions you made were successful – were there any outstanding issues and what might you have done differently?
• tell us about how you use the Code of conduct, CIfA Standards and guidance or the competence matrix as a guide to measure and evaluate your own competence and ability to make decisions and exercise professional judgement. How do you balance tried and tested methodologies with innovation and continuous improvement?

4) Demonstrate that you can anticipate, identify and resolve potential and actual conflicts of interest, collaborating with colleagues and/or stakeholders to achieve a resolution where relevant.

For example

• Give examples of actual or potential conflicts of interest you’ve encountered and how you approached or resolved them, with reference to the ethical frameworks you used. Are there instances where your obligations to your organisation, client or employer appear to conflict with your professional obligations? What is your approach in these cases? Who was involved? Whose ‘buy-in’ did you need to reach a solution and who needed to be informed? How do you ensure that others learn from your experience?

Perception of professional context

1) Demonstrate understanding of the underpinning principles of the profession and familiarity with its ethical code and practice standards.

2) Demonstrate that you can apply and evaluate professional judgement, that you understand the importance of ethical behaviour and that you support and encourage others to do the same.

3) Describe the wider context of your work and its impact in relation to stakeholders.

For example

• tell us how you ensure that you base your conclusions on a sound evidence base, that they are supported and defensible in relation to the Code of conduct, Standards and guidance and other relevant sector guidance or expectations. Are these strands of guidance mutually reinforcing or are there areas where they conflict?
• explain how working to a professional standard helps to deliver greater benefit to your stakeholders, including the public, or why professional accreditation is important to public confidence in your work.

4) Demonstrate that you understand the roles of the key historic environment sector organisations and who the beneficiaries and stakeholders of your work are.

5) Explain how you have balanced competing interests and maximised opportunities for positive impacts.

For example

• tell us who the clients/stakeholders/beneficiaries are of the work that you do. Who is affected by your work and is there potential for that to be negative?
• explain how you ensure that you balance competing stakeholder interests, maximise the positive impact of your work and minimise any negative impacts.

6) Discuss the impact of your work on others, including how you create public benefit and deliver value to society, and describe the wider context of your work.

For example

• give examples showing how you have created new knowledge and/or where sharing your knowledge has had a real impact on an individual, community or the public in general
• tell us how you decide on a course of action which will deliver the greatest benefit within time and cost parameters. Is there an example of a case where you argued for a change of approach in order to maximise public benefit? Whom did you have to convince and how did you do it?
• explain who benefits from your work – individuals, organisations, communities of interest?

Applicants need to demonstrate that they understand and work in accordance with the Standards and Code of conduct. For MCIfA you will need to include this in your statement and this will form the basis of your professional review interview, giving more detailed information here will assist you and the panel members.

This means you may need to undertake some training in ethical competence before you apply to be able to demonstrate the perception of professional context part of the competence matrix (see preparing for your application above). If you are unsure if you are ready to apply for MCIfA, please contact us at membership@archaeologists.net.

The professional review will involve a discussion of up to 45 minutes with a panel of two accredited professionals, we will inform you who they are in case of any conflict of interest. Please ensure you are available in the interview window as panel membes are voluntary and we can only change these in exceptional circumstances, please let us know in advance if possible.

The panel will assess ethical competence against the competence matrix using specific open- and scenario-based questions to draw out the information required with your statement as the basis for discussion. Please note they are not assessing right or wrong but the ethical approach to your work. You will be able to have your statement, the CIfA Code of conduct and any other reference documents you need to hand.

CIfA will be providing training sessions in how to prepare for a professional review, these will be advertised to applicants directly.

Reasonable Adjustments

CIfA has implemented an access and fair assessment policy and has adopted the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s Reasonable Adjustment Matrix. Please inform the Membership Manager (lianne.birney@archaeologists.net) as soon as possible if you require reasonable adjustments. Please note there will be a form to complete, and you will need to submit evidence in support.

Interview preparation useful links

• FAQs and example questions relating to MCIfA professional review interviews:

• The 'Preparing for your professional review' article in the following issue of the Move on to Member bulletin.

• Listen to the sound bites of Franki Webb, a recent successful MCIfA applicant. [Content outstanding]
• Refresh yourself on the CIfA Code of conduct and Standards and guidance.
• Look out for our series of workshops about ethics and applying in our current events list.
• You can also have a look at the Resources for professional ethics (see preparing for your application above).

Personal details

Please provide your name, job title, post nominals where relevant, and contact details in the online form.

References

In order to help the Validation Committee understand more about your professionalism, your understanding of the CIfA Code of conduct and your ability to comply with it, we ask for two references to support your application.

You can provide referees' contact details in the online application form. We will contact referees on receipt of your application or you can upload pre-written references to the online form, which will speed up the process. Referees should complete the CIfA reference template.

MCIfA applicants should

• use their current or most recent employer (line manager)
  If you are in the senior role, you can choose someone who works alongside you and can comment on your work.
  If you are self-employed this can be a senior colleague from another company you have worked with, but should not be a client.
• provide a second referee who is able to comment on your work from a quality assurance perspective. They should be external to your employer (and previous employers) working in an independent capacity. For example a curator, local authority/planning archaeologist, a funding body such as HLF or a large body such as Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland or Cadw, a specialist (where relevant). They should not be related to you or a client as this is considered a conflict of interest.

If you are unsure who to provide, please get in touch at membership@archaeologists.net and include your draft statement and/or CV as this helps to suggest suitable referees.

Referees

• do not have to be CIfA accredited. However, individual members and those working for Registered Organisations are preferable since it helps if they understand our work and accreditations.
• must be familiar with your role and the work you are using as evidence in your statement. They should be able to comment on the quality of your current work and your professionalism.
• are given two weeks to return their reference. Missing or late references can delay applications - please contact your referees in advance to ensure that they can provide you with a reference.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure the references are returned in time, although CIfA will contact referees for missing references and inform you as soon as possible if your application is awaiting responses from referees.

The Validation committee reserves the right to request additional references, if required, to reach a decision about your application. This is usually in cases where a reference is not current or does not include enough information to assist the committee in reaching a decision.

MCIfA applicants must provide a statement outlining their employed or voluntary roles and say how their current role demonstrates the four areas of the competence matrix, see below. It is the most important part of your application as it informs 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 upload or write directly into the boxes in the online form. Please note that draft new applications online cannot be saved and returned to.

Please note if applications are incomplete or haven't been completed in accordance with the guidance they are likely to be rolled over to the next deadline date and interview window.

For further information on how the competence categories apply in specailist areas of practice, please see our supporting specialist competence matrices. These can be used 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 should cover how you demonstrate the four areas - knowledge, autonomy, coping with complexity and perception of professional context - giving specific examples. You may find it easier to give an example of a few projects you have done from beginning to end.

​Detailed guidance and examples of what you should include can be found in the performance criteria (MCIfA) (see dropdown panel above).

For any roles you’ve undertaken longer than two years ago, please give a brief description of the responsibilities held, including any career breaks where relevant.

We also suggest you highlight within the statement the examples of work (see section below) you are providing to support your application.

If you have taken a career break, work part-time or have a portfolio career and can meet the evidence requirements to demonstrate competence in the four areas of the matrix, you are eligble to apply.

You can approach your statement of competence in different ways

1. use the four areas of the competence matrix as headings, write something for each and describe a specific example of where you did this
2. write it like a job application, describing your main responsibilities and how these fit into the four areas of the competence matrix using specific examples
3. write about a few specific pieces of work or projects in detail

Competence matrix for Member (MCIfA)

Qualifications (where relevant)

Please list any relevant qualifications, including title, University and date of completion and a brief outline of the areas covered. If you work in academia, please provide a more detailed outline.

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. A job description or CV can be uploaded to the online form but you must include a statement of competence (above).

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.

List of projects/publications/grey literature

Please list any relevant projects, publications or grey literature from your work in the last 2 years in the statement template or online form. Where work is co-authored or the authors not defined, please indicate which part(s) you were responsible for. You can also highlight those you are including as your examples of work.

If you do not have any publications, you are still eligible to apply.

MCIfA applicants should provide a minimum of five examples of work , ideally the best, most complex examples and those that will support your current role and what you say in your statement to help demonstrate the criteria. Where you have mentioned specific examples in your statement, please include those.
 

These should be recent examples preferably from within the last two years and be written by you. This is not limited to reports or finalised/published work, but can be many different types (see list below).

You can upload up to five examples to the online application form (less than 6MB in size). For larger files, please use a file sharing service such as WeTransfer and share this with membership@archaeologists.net. All material will be treated as confidential under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), only shared with the Validation committee and deleted after the application process is complete.

If you do not produce any examples of work in your current role, please explain why you have not been able to provide any in your Statement.

Suggestions for suitable examples of work include, but are not limited to:

• project briefs and specifications
• draft and pre-publication documents
• environmental assessments
• condition surveys, management plans
• graphics-based work
• individual illustrations and/or plans - please include the reports they are from
• survey data
• finds/environmental strategies or reports
• post-excavation assessments
• project designs or funding applications
• emails giving advice to clients or members of the public
• emails liaising with colleagues or specialists about a project
• outlines of archaeological or other relevant courses which you have taught
• fieldwork reports (geophysics, landscape survey, building/survey recording, excavation, evaluation, characterisation)
• examples of edited work
• published works or journals
• presentations you have compiled and delivered, videos of toolbox talks and site meetings that you lead on, where appropriate
• Forensic reports or statements; please ensure that you redact any identifying information even if permission has been given
• displays created and the research behind it
• grey literature
• HER audits

If you are unsure what to provide, please get in touch at membership@archaeologists.net and include your draft statement and/or CV as this helps to find suitable examples.

For all upgrade applications we require a Professional Deveopment Plan (PDP) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) log from the last two years that can either be uploaded to the form or tick the box to say you have an online log with us through the CIfA website.

You can provide your companies' templates or you can use the CIfA templates - see our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) page.

If you are currently a Student or Affiliate member, or have had a recent career break, please provide what you can.

New MCIfA application fee is £60. Upgrade to MCIfA application fee is £30 (from 1 April 2024).

Application fees are payable via ClearAccept (we cannot take American Express) or by invoice and can be paid by the applicant or their employer (please check before applying).

Please note this is a non-refundable payment for the administration and assessment of your application and not the annual subscription fees.

Before submitting your application you will be asked to declare that the information you have provided is correct at the time of applying and if you have been subject to a professional conduct investigation.

If you pay through ClearAccept (replaced PayPal) you will not receive confirmation of your submission, we will contact you within a week to confirm.

If you have any problems when paying please select invoice in order to submit your application and email membership@archaeologists.net.

Applicants are encouraged to use the Statement of competence template template to apply.

Referees will be sent a CIfA reference template to complete.

Statement examples

These are statements from MCIfA applicants who have sucessfully applied.

Further guidance

Specialist competence matrices - to assist seeing how your role might fit into the main matrix above if you work in a specialist area, you do not need to demonstrate all of these.

Review the application process timeline for what to expect after you have submitted your application.