In the middle of October, the Chartered Institute announced changes to the way Chartership can be achieved. Instead of spending half a day filling in a form, writing a 4,000-word reflective paper then having an interview, it could all be done in one day.
When you consider that only 52 Chartered Practitioners have been created since Chartership was introduced, you can see why a change was needed.
What does this mean to a two-time fail like me? Well, there’s a cut-off date of mid-December for people if they want to change from the old scheme to the new one. But I’ve already paid for Stage 2, so I could continue. But what would be the point if I fail (okay, I know it’s not called ‘failing’) again?
It turns out that I could submit and get a decision pretty quickly – a ‘free throw’, if you wish. I spent two weekends at the end of October bashing out 3,700 words. In all my years trying to pass various courses, diplomas and degrees I’ve never written so fluently or quickly – I had the first 2,700 down in less than 24 hours (bearing in mind I had to sleep at some point, and I went to visit my mum).
Handed the essay in at the start of November; here we are four weeks later and I’ve just had the interview – or ‘viva’, as I call it, since it does remind me of defending one’s thesis. Result in a week or so, I’m told. Keep ’em crossed.