What the Summary Statement Is in an Engineers Australia CDR
The Summary Statement is the third component in the CDR package submitted to Engineers Australia — after the Career Episodes and CPD. Many people write Career Episodes quite well but lose marks on the Summary Statement because they do not understand its purpose and how to complete it.
What the Summary Statement is
The Summary Statement is a mapping table — it shows how your engineering competencies correspond to each competency element in EA’s standards.
Put simply: you are “pointing EA to” the evidence of competency that you described, in which paragraph, of which Career Episode.
Structure of the Summary Statement table
The table usually has two main columns:
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| Competency element (for example: PE1.1, PE2.3, PE3.6) | Location in the Career Episodes (for example: “EP2, paragraph 14–16”) |
In column 2 you enter the specific paragraphs in your Career Episodes that demonstrate you have shown that competency element.
What competency elements are
EA classifies engineering competency at two levels:
Professional Engineer (PE)
It includes these competency groups:
- PE1: Knowledge and Skill Base
- PE2: Engineering Application Ability
- PE3: Professional and Personal Attributes
Each group has several numbered sub-elements (PE1.1, PE1.2… PE2.1, PE2.2…). There are around 16 elements in total for Professional Engineer.
Engineering Technologist (ET) and Engineering Associate (EA)
The two lower levels have their own sets of elements with fewer in number.
How to complete the Summary Statement correctly
Specific references — no vague entries
✗ Wrong: “PE1.1 — demonstrated throughout all career episodes”
✓ Correct: “PE1.1 — EP1, paragraph 8-10; EP2, paragraph 5”
The reason: EA needs to be directed to the exact paragraph to verify it. A vague entry means EA cannot find the evidence.
Distribute evenly across the career episodes
You should not pile all competency elements into a single Career Episode. Ideally each element has evidence from at least 2 different episodes.
This is also why you need to plan from the moment you write the Career Episodes — knowing in advance which element you will demonstrate in which paragraph.
You do not need to cover 100% of the elements
EA does not require you to have evidence for EVERY element — but you need enough to demonstrate overall competency. The more important elements (such as PE1.1 on engineering knowledge, PE2.1 on application) should be fully covered.
Paragraph numbers must match
This is a simple mistake but a frequent one: the paragraph numbers in the Summary Statement do not match the actual paragraph numbers in the Career Episodes. Recount carefully before lodging.
The relationship between the Summary Statement and Career Episodes
The Summary Statement depends entirely on the Career Episodes — you cannot write a good Summary Statement if the Career Episodes do not yet have enough technical content.
The practical process:
- Write the Career Episodes with clearly numbered paragraphs
- Re-read and identify which competency element each paragraph demonstrates
- Complete the Summary Statement based on the results of step 2
You should not write the Summary Statement first and then try to cram content into the Career Episodes — this loses the natural and genuine quality of the application.
A note on formatting
EA provides a ready-made template for the Summary Statement — download it from the EA website and complete it in the correct format. Do not create your own table, because the structure of the competency elements may be updated over time.
See more about how to write Career Episodes at Engineers Australia CDR: what Career Episodes are and how to write them.