#009 The Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) 📜

Hello, dear colleagues on the internet 👋

After completing your undergraduate course or conversion programme for Quantity Surveying, the next big challenge is to get “chartered”.

But what does it mean to get chartered?

In simple terms, being a chartered surveyor means that your skills and expertise have been approved and tested by a panel of expert surveyors and your skills can be relied upon.

A key benefit of getting chartered is that it often tends to lead to promotions and an increase in pay. The RICS suggest that chartered professionals in the UK earn on average £16,000 more each year than non-members – that's a significant bump in pay.

So how do you get chartered?

There are several ways to get chartered depending on the stage of your career, previous qualifications and past experiences. For a detailed understanding of how to become a chartered surveyor – please check the RICS website.

But for now, let's assume you are a graduate.

1. Have an RICS accredited degree: This means that you are doing a course that is recognised by the RICS. If you are applying for university courses please make sure that your university course is accredited, otherwise, you will have to do an additional qualification to pass this first hurdle. If like me, you didn’t do an accredited degree, you will likely end up doing a post-graduate conversion course, either over one year full-time or over two years part-time.
   

2. Structured training or preliminary review: After you have your accredited degree, you will end up on a structured training programme, either 12 or 24 months depending on whether you are non-cognate or not. In that period, you will undergo quarterly submissions with your counsellors who sign you off as fit for purpose. Be wary of this, most large firms have an internal structured training programme which means you will not be put forward for final assessment with senior board level approval. This protects firms from risk and ensures that you are indeed to undertake the final assessment. After you have your accredited degree, you will end up on a structured training programme, either 12 or 24 months depending on whether you are non-cognate or not. In that period, you will undergo quarterly submissions with your counsellors who sign you off as fit for purpose. Be wary of this, most large firms have an internal structured training programme which means you will not be put forward for final assessment with senior board level approval. This protects firms from risk and ensures that you are indeed to undertake the final assessment.

Future posts will be dedicated to some of the key competencies that I am tackling on my road to chartership!

Have a great week! 👍

#chartership #productivity