Starting a logbook

Obtaining and starting to use a logbook is a vital first step towards gaining an IRSE licence. Even if you are not intending to start working towards a licence immediately, you should start a logbook without delay.

It is a requirement of the IRSE Licensing Scheme that licence holders possess an up-to-date logbook:

You cannot obtain your licence in the first place without showing the assessors that you have a logbook which is up to date.
You are in breach of your licence obligations if you subsequently fail to keep it up-to-date.

By keeping all the required information in your logbook, it will serve to demonstrate that you are continuing to work within the scope of your licence, and to the standard required.

The essential information that you must keep in your logbook

The minimum requirements for licence holders completing their logbook have been reduced, although use may still be made of all the sections in the book if the licence holder or their organisation wish (for example when the logbook is also used as a record for IRSE membership or registration at Eng Tech, IEng or CEng level)

As a minimum the log book shall contain the following sections:

Logbook annual review form – or evidence that annual reviews have taken place (recommended to be kept at the front of the book)
Obligations of Licence Holders and Log Book Requirements (LP1)
Licence Details
Record of Complaints
Training Record
Work Experience

Each section of the logbook listed above should be kept separate from the others by a divider.

Other information you may want to keep in your logbook

You may wish to use your logbook for keeping other records relating to your job and career, and you are free to do this if you wish. Examples of the sorts of items you may wish to include are:

Certificates of courses attended, examinations passed etc.
Details of career objectives.
Details of membership of professional institutions such as the IRSE or IEE, and any activities undertaken for or in connection with them (eg. presenting papers, membership of committees, mentoring trainees etc).
Continuing Professional Development records (if, for instance, you work to a CPD scheme operated by the IRSE or IEE).
Your CV, job description, role profile and safety responsibility statement.
Performance and Development Review records.
Details of your activities in connection with Notified Body work (this is relevant only to a small number of people).

If you already possess a CPD file or similar, you may find it more convenient to adapt it to include the records required for IRSE licensing, rather than start another file.

If you are also seeking IRSE membership, you will certainly need many of the additional records listed above in your combined CPD/Licensing Logbook. It is not necessary to be a member of the IRSE in order to be a licence holder.

Obtaining a logbook

It is your responsibility to obtain a logbook and start using it, if you have not already done so. You can obtain a logbook by a number of methods:

By obtaining one from your manager, either the IRSE logbook or in-house company logbook provided it contains the minimum licence requirements
By purchasing one from the IRSE.
By making your own and downloading the pages from this website

Starting to use your logbook

Once you have obtained a logbook, start using it without delay, as follows:

Enter as much detail about training that you have received, going back several years if possible. If you have a CV or existing training records, then you will have access to the details which will help you to complete this section of the logbook. Otherwise, you will have to rely on your memory! When you have compiled the record, get the details countersigned by your manager.
Enter as much detail as you can about work activities that you have undertaken, going back two years if possible. So far as you can, ask your current manager to countersign the details. Each entry should provide sufficient detail that someone reviewing the logbook can understand the nature of the work and your role in it.
Enter details of your current and previous jobs, going back as far as you are able (but do not include non-railway employment unless you consider it to be particularly relevant). Again, if you possess a CV this will help to complete this section of the logbook.
Enter detail of your qualifications (HNC, degree, NVQ, membership of professional institutions, etc).

At this stage you will not have any details to include regarding your licence or formal complaints, but the logbook must contain sections for these.

Having started your logbook, keep it up to date. You will not get a licence without doing so.