The people who brought you the APC Trainer have gone one better … Jon Lever is the man who trains the APC assessors and over the next two years he will guide you through each step in the process that leads up to the final assessment on building.co.uk. This week, he starts at the very beginning …

Here are some statistics. In my 10 years as an APC assessor, a quarter of the candidates I’ve assessed have little understanding of the process, nearly two-thirds have handed in poor documentation and three-quarters appear to have had little or no support from supervisors and counsellors. My average pass rate is below 50% and I have passed all four candidates on an assessment day only twice.

I have often asked myself why this should be, and my conclusion is simple: candidates, supervisors and counsellors don’t read and follow the APC guidance properly. If they did, then there would be little opportunity for mistakes. So, if you want to pass your APC first time, learn the process from the guides, take time to research the RICS website and make sure you get the right experience. With that in mind, my monthly guide to the APC begins with some tips on starting the process.

Join the RICS

Becoming an RICS member is the first step. Either sign up as a student if you are still at university, or as a trainee surveyor if you are embarking on your APC application. You will then be given a membership number, allowing you wider access to the RICS through its website, library and other member services.

Choose the right job

Your next step is to seek appropriate employment. You need to find a job that will give you the experience you need to follow your chosen competencies. Ensure your prospective employer has an RICS-approved structured training agreement (STA). Go to “find a surveyor” at www.ricsfirms.com or to www.ricsrecruit.com for more information on suitable employers. Recruitment agencies may also be a good point of reference.

To progress successfully you must understand the APC process; RICS APC guides (www.rics.org) can prove an invaluable resource.

Get support

Depending on your chosen route you may need a supervisor and counsellor with whom you can discuss the process. Give them all the information and material they need to make informed decisions about your progress. Read the APC candidate guide and the APC guide for supervisors, counsellors and employers.

It is important to realise that if a supervisor or counsellor does not understand how to support you properly, it will greatly affect your chances of success at final assessment. Ideally, your supervisor and counsellor will have sat the APC, but don’t discount experienced chartered surveyors who have not, but have a wealth of knowledge nonetheless. A candidate cannot come forward for assessment without a supervisor and counsellor’s sign-off.

Take the initiative

Take control of your career. Apply yourself and put your best effort into proper training. Seek guidance from your supervisor and counsellor. Think about what you do every day and how it applies to your required competencies.

Seek out all available resources – RICS regional offices, RICS training advisers (for the approval of STAs), APC doctors and RICS matrics. There are plenty of resources on my website: www.delever.com.

Pick a route

There are a number of routes to APC, so knowing which to choose can be difficult. There are three graduate routes that candidates can follow, as well as a number of others for more senior surveyors. The RICS provides a selection matrix to help you choose called “RICS routes to membership”. This is available at www.rics.org/apcm.

The APC routes are not the same as APC pathways, which are specific disciplines a candidate chooses to follow, such as quantity surveying or building surveying. APC routes, on the other hand, are related to the amount and type of training required and will be based on the candidate’s education and previous experience.

Choose your competencies wisely

Competencies are the heart of the process and the key to APC success, as they allow you to demonstrate your experience and levels of achievement. It is vital to understand what you are meant to do for each competency and pick the right ones for your situation.

RICS guidance is not exhaustive so you need to rely on your supervisor and counsellor to assist you through the process. If you are struggling to interpret something, contact an APC doctor from the relevant pathway (see www.rics.org/apc). APC doctors are volunteers, so make sure they are contacted in good time and in a professional manner.

My tips

  • Manage the APC process yourself and book all the required meetings with your supervisor and counsellor well in advance. Schedule meetings as close to the set APC timeline as possible. Supervisors and counsellors have clear responsibilities and the quarterly meetings are designed to ensure problems do not go unchecked. Even a short delay can jeopardise final assessment dates.
  • Keep looking at the APC guides to make sure you understand the requirements for each of the competencies.
  • Assess everything you do and relate it back to your competencies.
  • Keep ahead of the process, rather than playing catch-up on administrative areas.

Get involved with the RICS. RICS matrics (www.rics.org/matrics) is a good way to meet APC candidates. It is important for your development to meet fellow professionals, so make sure you attend RICS’ regional events. Anything you get involved in could be relevant to your development, and RICS involvement is often seen in a positive light in your final assessment.

Competency focus: Sustainability

Many candidates complete their diary without keeping an audit trail of how and when they accumulated their experience and competence. This is dangerous: it exposes you at interview to questions that should be easy to answer, but because of the pressure and the lack of reference material for your revision, you fail to answer convincingly. This is particularly the case with the mandatory competencies. Remember: mandatory competencies do not have to be noted in your diary, and therefore, although they are critical to your competence profile, they may be missed in your record of competence.

For example, sustainability is the hot topic of the moment. It has been a key element of a chartered surveyor’s work for many years but has only recently been specifically identified within the APC as a mandatory competence. To help candidates, the College of Estate Management have produced a sustainability publication that can be viewed at www.cem.ac.uk

One way to demonstrate your competency is to show how you have considered sustainability at every stage of your decision-making. You can do this by having a sound knowledge of some of the “sustainability tools” that are available to the chartered surveyor. These will vary depending on which part of the world you practice. In the UK, some of the more common tools are Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Sustainability Checklists (such as SEEDA, BRE), the Green Guide to Specification and BREEAM (including eco-homes). The important thing in the interview is to speak authoritatively about how you have considered sustainability issues and to be able to describe the tools you have used to assess the options.

Ben Elder is a director at the College of Estate Management and an RICS, APC and ATC assessor

Postscript

Jon Lever is managing director of DeLever, APC chairman of assessors, RICS training adviser and RICS-licensed assessor trainer.

DeLever’s website is www.delever.com