Building surveying careers: changes to the pathway

The right pathway

18 April 2018

Chris Lindsay explains how the RICS Building Surveying pathway and competencies have been revised following consultation

What are the knowledge, experience, and skills required of a chartered surveyor? This is a question RICS’ Global Education and Qualification Standards team has been asking of the profession. In a previous article (Building Surveying Journal May/June 2017, pp.24-5), we reported on the pathways and competencies review, including the consultation on proposed changes to the Building Surveying pathway. One of the main outcomes of consultation was that surveyors wanted the proposed changes to be made in the pathway guides, the detailed documents setting out particular requirements for an area of practice.

Consultation documents

Working groups were formed for each area, comprising representatives from RICS Professional Groups and employers, to draft the content of the new guides. These were then presented as part of a second-stage consultation that ran for 2 months during autumn 2017.

The key consultation documents were:

  • 21 individual pathway guides; these were working documents for consultation, and not reflective of final branded versions
  • a draft of the new mandatory competencies, with expanded descriptors and examples
  • a summary of the proposed changes.

The responses we received were on the whole positive and, subject to updating the draft guides based on the comments, the content of the new framework will be ready for implementation later this year. At the time of writing, the launch date is to still to be confirmed, but transitional arrangements will be in place for candidates to come forward for assessment under the current version.

New competencies

The current competencies for the Building Surveying pathway are included in the current guide, while Table 1 and Table 2 together detail the new competencies.

shows Table 1: Main changes to competency requirements in the Building Surveying pathway

Table 1: Main changes to competency requirements in the Building surveying pathway

Table 2: Overview of competency requirements in the Building surveying pathway after revisions

Table 2: Overview of competency requirements in the Building surveying pathway after revisions

Sample competency

To take one example, Building pathology is a core competency to Level 3. This is core to many areas of surveying, and it is essential that all candidates have an understanding of defects analysis, and the likely defects that will result from failures in building fabric (see Table 3).

Table 3 Examples of likely knowledge, skills and experience required at each level

Table 3: Examples of likely knowledge, skills and experience required at each level

Fire safety

At the time of writing, a further proposal to add Fire safety as a core competency requirement to Level 1 is being considered (for more on fire safety see pp.18–20 of this issue). Fire safety is about having the skills to assess buildings and proposed projects and being able to advise how to meet the necessary safety requirements where they have not been achieved.

Assessment Resource Centre

Any changes to the framework need to be reflected in the Assessment Resource Centre (ARC), which allows candidates to manage all their training, CPD and selected competency records online. User guides and instructional videos for the ARC are available on the RICS website. The ARC also enables counsellors to support candidates through each stage of the final assessment and, when required, sign off competencies and the candidates’ summaries of experience. All new enrolments in English from 31 January 2017 and all final assessments taken in English must now use the ARC.

If you have any questions or comments about the review, please do contact us.

Chris Lindsay is RICS Global Education and Qualification Standards Manager

Further information

Download a complete “Building surveying careers: changes to the pathway” PDF