Stronger together
Richard Flemmings, Council Partnerships Lead, Association for Geographic Information
AGI & CICES are working to support your GeoCareer development
THE Association for Geographic Information (AGI) is a UK membership organisation delivering the needs of members working in the geographic information (GI) and geospatial world. We lead, connect, and develop a community of members who use and benefit from GI. We are independent and impartial, and we work with members and the wider community, including partners like CICES, to successfully influence government policy, deliver the highest quality of education and provide a lead for best practice across the industry.
Our mission is to foster, create and support a thriving geospatial community, embracing all aspects of the art, science and active use of GI, actively supporting a sustainable future.
We aim to achieve this through the three pillars that govern our activities and intentions, namely; to nurture and connect active GI communities, support career and skills development for GI professionals, and provide thought leadership to inspire future generations.
We lead, connect and develop a community of members who use and benefit from geographic information.The association is run as a limited company with a council formed from elected members of the AGI. The council’s main role is to set the strategic direction for the organisation to enable us to achieve our mission and adhere to our pillars.
To do this, council members, who are all volunteers, use their own knowledge and experience, as well as consulting with the wider membership, industry and partner network.
The AGI council works throughout the year to develop and maintain relationships like the one we have with CICES which is based around a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2020.
For example, we have recently signed a new MoU with the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with the Institute of British Geographers, and one with the British Cartographic Society, and we have a close relationship with the Geospatial Commission.
In fact, AGI was named as one of the internationally recognised UK organisations in the recently published UK Geospatial Strategy 2030.
But that’s enough about us, let’s talk about you. As I have mentioned the AGI works hard to foster, maintain and develop close relationships across a number of industries and specialist sectors and the civil engineering surveyor space is one of those. In the last couple of years, we’ve been supporting CICES as it develops and updates its professional competencies.
Our mission is to foster, create and support a thriving geospatial community, embracing all aspects of the art, science and active use of GI, actively supporting a sustainable future.
As you are no doubt aware, in order to become a member of the institution you must demonstrate that you have experience covering the CICES competencies (although this does not automatically mean you will be accepted as a member, it is an essential part of the application process).
These include general competencies, for example communication, leadership, teamwork and newly added equality, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability. They also include core competencies, either commercial or geospatial, and specialist competencies.
The scope of specialist competencies is where the relationship between AGI and CICES really comes into its own. Aligning with our pillar to ‘support career and skills development for GI professionals’, Matthew Leaver, who was part of the AGI team who worked alongside the institution, said: “There are many members of CICES who use GIS and there are also many members of the AGI who work in the architecture, engineering and construction sector, all of whom are required to demonstrate relevant technical and professional development to progress their careers.”
The scope of specialist competencies is where the relationship between AGI and CICES really comes into its own.
During 12 months of collaboration AGI and CICES saw the update and validation of the institution’s specialist competency framework for geospatial information systems (GIS). These competencies cover activities and skills under the headings geospatial data capture and processing, data management, GIS and analysis of data, reporting and visualisation, GIS software, and platforms, consultancy and advocacy.
The AGI will continue to work with CICES in terms of updating these competencies to ensure they are relevant and current in a rapidly evolving geospatial sector, and, moving forward, particular attention will be given to subjects such as simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and earth observation and more broadly artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and ethics.
This, however, is not the only activity the AGI has undertaken in support of career and skills development.
The AGI Council works throughout the year to develop and maintain relationships like the one we have with CICES which is based around a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2020.
Recently, the association’s special interest group (SIG) for education and skills has been working on a project to establish if a skills gap exists in today’s UK GI community.
The SIG engaged with the AGI membership asking a range of questions around recruitment, skills, staff retention and career development, as well as reaching out to corporate members to obtain anecdotal evidence relating to recruitment, skills and staff retention. It is hoped the outputs of this survey will inform both individuals and organisations what skills are required to ensure a sustainable GI sector.
The association’s Early Careers Network (ECN) also reached out to members to explore ‘What do early careers professionals in the geospatial sector value from their employers?’
Working alongside the RGS, this outreach project was designed to understand the relative importance of organisational values and employee terms and conditions to early careers professionals and how these change as careers progress. Initial conclusions, including the ethos that ‘it’s not all about the money’, were presented at last year’s AGI conference GeoCom and the results of both these surveys are due for release in September so keep an eye open for press coverage, social media posts or visit the AGI website to download a copy.
With the geospatial data market having an estimated value of £15bn in the UK alone, including the contribution that geospatial makes to the broader digital technology market, this means that it has never been a better time to be a professional with geo-skills, geo-knowledge or geo-experience.
The AGI has also collaborated with the RGS, as did CICES, to support the recent publication of its report ‘Accreditation for geospatial professionals’.
This project looked at advertised geospatial roles to understand different occupations within the geospatial landscape and reveal the required skills, knowledge and experience concluding ‘that there is no one-size-fits-all’ professional journey, nor one prescribed pathway’ for professional development and accreditation within the geospatial space.
The guide then provides an introduction to recognition across different domains with information on different pathways.
So, with the geospatial data market having an estimated value of £15bn in the UK alone, including the contribution that geospatial makes to the broader digital technology market, this means that it has never been a better time to be a professional with geo-skills, geoknowledge or geo-experience.
One way to demonstrate or obtain these capabilities and engage with potential employees, employers or simply build your network of peers, is by joining a professional membership organisation, such as AGI or CICES, who will actively support you on your geo-journey, provide you with a ready-made network of relevant geoprofessionals and be able to signpost you to other organisations, people or opportunities that can help.
Richard Flemmings, Council Partnerships Lead, Association for Geographic Information
For further information visit www.rgs.org/professionals/chartered-geographer/guide-to-accreditation-for-geospatial-professional/ or check out CICES competencies guide at www.cices.org/competencies