Log Book

11-Sep-07

An electronic template of the log book is available to download.

The log book is an important document for success in the APC. Kept monthly over the period of eligible experience, it is an opportunity to reflect upon the experience gained and the way in which it has contributed to the development of skills, competencies, knowledge and understanding. Students and Licentiates should follow the log book template provided in the Guide to the APC, provided in electronic format (onto which you can type directly) through the link at the top of this page.

The APC log book:

Allows you to continuously review your practice and therefore further your career progress;
Is a useful document to help you compose your final APC submission;
Can be referred to directly in your APC submission, if you wish.

Full guidance on the log book is available in Section 4 of the Guide to the APC.

What is the log book used for?

It is useful to bear in mind why you are completing the log book: specifically, to assist you with your future application by preparing, over the course of your eligible experience, a portfolio of evidence of the work you have undertaken and the skills, competencies, knowledge and understanding developed as a result of this work.

The log book will be submitted with your application for Corporate Membership as evidence of an ongoing period of learning. It is not formally assessed, so there are no assessment criteria attached to it. However Assessors do find it very useful to confirm and clarify details from your written submission. You should also find it a very useful document to help you put together your written submission, by providing you with a good level of detail about your work, and helping you to select the areas of work which best illustrate the assessment criteria.

What should I include in the log book?

You should always think about the relevance of the information you are including, and whether you might usefully use it in your final submission. However, if in doubt – include it! You can always elect not to include it in the final report.

As much detail as you are able to provide should help you to avoid your log book becoming repetitive (see below). However, of course this will be balanced against how much time you have available to complete your log book, which we would recommend is no less than two hours in each month.

It is up to you how you break down the information to enter into the ‘Nature of work’ column, as this will depend on your role. If you have finite, well bounded pieces of work e.g. a planning application, you may wish to provide the details of this application, a bit of the history, challenges, problems etc, then draw out in the skills and knowledge column what was involved. If your work is round larger projects that run from month to month, you may find it easier to provide the broad detail of the project at the start of your log book, then focus on specific tasks e.g. site visits, research, meeting etc.

When drawing out skills and knowledge, simply listing these is unlikely to provide you with very useful information. More helpful would be to draw out and reflect upon exactly how those skills were developed as a result of the work you have undertaken. This should help you to explore more thoroughly the detail and implications of a project or piece of work in your final submission.

How can I avoid my log book becoming repetitive?

An element of repetition will be inherent in any log book, as you may be working on similar projects, or developing the same competencies as a result of various pieces of work. This can be alleviated by introducing a greater level of detail, as it is likely that you would be learning different things from, e.g. one planning application to the next. Therefore rather than simply noting ‘planning application’, and listing straightforward skills development, you might more usefully examine the particular detail/nuances/requirements of each application and explore the particular pieces of information/knowledge that were necessary in order to deal with it successfully. What were the points of conflict? How were these resolved? In doing so, it would be useful to demonstrate a wider knowledge of relevant legislation/policy etc. This is particularly important in your final submission, but might be usefully included in the log book to aid the production of this document in the future.

Should I structure my log book with sentences or bullet points?

Either format is perfectly acceptable, with particular areas of work lending themselves more easily to one format or the other. When using sentences, avoid repetition of introductory phrases that are implicit in the column heading (‘the skill I developed from this task was…’). However the advantage of sentences is that it is much easier to make yourself present in the text (‘I worked on…’, ‘I produced…’), as opposed to bullet points which more easily lend themselves to the third person or passive voice (‘A report was produced…’). It is very important that you make clear what you did. Similarly, if you are using bullet point format, beware of producing a very basic list of skills/competencies etc. which has limited exploration of the details of each work area.

What level of skills are required?

Assessors will be looking for evidence of how ‘soft skills’ such as those outlined in Section 4 of the APC Guide have been developed over time. Licentiates will therefore need to think about the level they have reached, and whether there is further development that could be undertaken. This is often easier to see played out retrospectively, as it is easy to 'up sell' oneself in relation to what might be reasonably expected at the time, rather than comparing performance to where you might hope to be in 1-2 years time. The skills you possess may be sufficient to allow you to undertake your current role, but try to think critically about whether you could further develop them to assist you in your future career objectives. In this way an area of strength may also be an area for further development.

Should I include technical/planning-specific skills & knowledge?

Definitely! Licentiates tend to focus more on the 'soft skills' than on the technical skills and knowledge they might be using/acquiring e.g. research & inquiry, use of planning knowledge, etc. It is important that these are included, as Assessors will be examining your final submission for evidence of the professional planning work you have undertaken.

Do I need to include evidence of professional development activity?

Any professional development activity you undertake over the course of a month – training, seminars, background reading, networking, RTPI activity etc – could also be usefully included in the log book, along with the learning outcomes i.e. ensuring the skills/competencies and knowledge/understanding columns are also completed. You may find that these activities also highlight other areas for further development or investigation, e.g. introducing you in passing to a piece of legislation that you then research further

How does my log book relate to my PDP?

A strong integration between the log book and PDP should allow you to get the most out of both documents. The penultimate log book column invites you to explore areas for further development that you have been able to identify as a direct result of the work you have been undertaking. This can be carried forward to your PDP in order to identify exactly how you intend to meet these needs. This activity may then be recorded in future log book entries.

The PDP also allows you to think beyond your current work area to reflect more widely on your career direction and the skills, competencies & knowledge you require in order to achieve your objectives. This might mean that, for example, if you are working in Development Control but see a future for yourself in Regeneration, you are able to identify key skills, knowledge or perhaps networking opportunities that will assist you in achieving this aim.

Are there any examples of log books?

Examples of log book entries are available to give Licentiates and students an idea of the level of detail and type of content that is useful to include in a log book. The examples are not intended to be indicative of the type of experience that should be gained in order to be successful in APC. For information on eligible experience, please see Section 3 of the APC Guide.

In the examples, the italicised words in brackets indicate where identifying names and locations have been removed to protect the identity of the author and his/her employer. Assessor comments follow the log book entries.

Examples are available for

Planning Consultant (part-time student on accredited degree)

Transport Planner (Licentiate member at Local Authority)

Development Control Officers - this series of log books are all examples of acceptable practice. Read together they are designed to show how the log book may be improved upon in terms of the detail contained in the log book and the reflection displayed by the Licentiate.

Development Control 1

Development Control 2

Development Control 3

Please note that to read log book PDF files on screen you will need to use the 'rotate' button on the top toolbar of each document.