A Scheme A Logbook With Missing Mentor Signatures
A graduate trainee joined a Hong Kong E&M contractor 14 months ago on a Scheme A-type training programme. He has spent 9 months on a hospital site as a site engineer, mainly supervising subcontractors' conduit and cable installation, and 3 months on secondment to a switchgear factory in Dongguan. His training logbook is a table of daily activities copied from site diaries with dates, but only his own signature appears. His first mentor left after 6 months; a second was assigned but has signed only two of the last eight monthly entries, all on the same day last week. One quarterly progress report was written by the trainee and signed by the project manager, who is not the mentor. The trainee asks you, as the new mentor, to backfill the missing signatures so his first-year report can be submitted before the Institution's deadline. He has no record of the factory secondment beyond a photograph of the factory gate.
1. Assess whether the logbook, as described, provides acceptable evidence of structured training. Identify the gaps and the risks to the trainee's registration.
Read the worked answer
The logbook records attendance and activity, not structured training. A defensible record should show training objectives, the tasks performed, duration, the level of supervision, what the trainee learned, and mentor endorsement. Copying site diaries shows presence on site but not progressive responsibility or technical development. Nine months of mostly supervising conduit and cable installation is narrow: it may not cover design, protection, testing and commissioning, tendering, safety management or project controls. The Dongguan secondment has no objectives, no factory acceptance test records, no report and no supervisor statement, so it is effectively unverified. The quarterly report signed by the project manager is weak evidence because the signatory is not the mentor and may not have supervised the work. The risk is that the training committee treats the period as unverified or incomplete, which can delay or jeopardise the trainee's registration. It is better to disclose the gaps and rebuild the evidence than to present a record that looks complete but cannot be defended. I would map the existing entries against the training objectives and identify which objectives have no evidence at all.
2. How should you respond to the request to backfill signatures and to the project manager's signature on the quarterly report?
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I would not backdate or sign for periods I did not supervise. That would create a false record and would breach the integrity expected of a professional engineer and a mentor. I would explain this clearly to the trainee and offer a legitimate route. For the period before my appointment, I would ask the company training committee to obtain a statement from the previous mentor if he can be contacted, confirming what he actually supervised and when. If he cannot be contacted, the project manager may sign a factual statement confirming attendance and duties as line manager, clearly marked as line-management confirmation, not mentor endorsement. I would record the handover date and state that my endorsement applies only from that date. The missing monthly entries should be annotated with an explanation of why they were not signed at the time, and the trainee should write a short retrospective reflection for each month, clearly dated now. The report should be submitted with an explanatory note and a request for guidance, not with invented signatures. Meeting a deadline never justifies a false record.
3. Set out a corrective plan for the remaining training period that would give the trainee defensible evidence.
Read the worked answer
The plan should be specific and evidence-based. First, agree written objectives with the trainee and the company training committee for the remaining period, covering the gaps: design office work, protection and discrimination studies, testing and commissioning, tendering and cost control, safety and temporary works, and at least one client-facing activity. Second, rotate him through at least two functions rather than leaving him on site supervision. Third, require a proper secondment report from the factory visit, including the switchgear types, tests witnessed, test sheets and a supervisor's confirmation. Fourth, hold a monthly mentor meeting with a short written record: date, topics, tasks, reflection and next actions. Fifth, require quarterly progress reports signed by the mentor, with the trainee's own reflection attached. Sixth, keep objective evidence such as drawings reviewed, test records, commissioning sheets, calculations and minutes. Finally, explain that the logbook is a professional record, not an attendance sheet, and that the same discipline will serve him for CPD after registration.