THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP Facing the future – Supporting the next generation of surveyors

Jen Lemen

Jen is a partner and co-founder of Property Elite.

This is the first part of a series of articles Jen has agreed to write. She introduces the context of why/how to become a Counsellor, and the next will lead into assessing practice and mocks. Jen says she “wanted to set out the wider framework, first to try to motivate people to become Counsellors and stick with candidates for the long run, rather than just dipping in for a mock. 

Over my career to date, I have learnt about the power of mentorship in surveying. The more that we work to pass on our skills, experience and knowledge to the next generation, the better. This is even more important now that fewer surveyors are sitting in offices, sharing market intelligence over a coffee, or overhearing what the person next to you is saying on the phone. 

We learn so much from others; imitating what they do when things go right, and avoiding similar behaviours when they go wrong! 

So what can you do, as a chartered surveyor, to help other aspiring surveyors? In this article, I will be focusing on using your professional letters, to help others succeed in their Assessment of Professional Competence (APC). 

One great way to do this is to become an APC Counsellor (MRICS/FRICS), as every APC candidate must have one appointed before they can start their APC journey. However, the role is much more than just a tick box exercise. A Counsellor is there to support and guide their candidate throughout their APC journey, with the responsibility of signing off the candidate’s submission prior to their final assessment submission and interview. 

We recommend that anyone interested in supporting APC candidates undertakes both their official RICS Counsellor and Assessor training. If you are supporting a candidate through their APC journey, then knowing how they will be assessed is an essential part of the advice you will give. If you have experience of this first hand, then it will really strengthen the advice that you give, as you will have personal insight into the process and how candidates can navigate it successfully. 

A candidate may also have a Supervisor, which is a different role and not a mandatory requirement. A Supervisor will typically be their line manager or a senior member of staff. 

The level of support that you provide as a Counsellor will vary from candidate to candidate. For example, Structured Training candidates may need more hands-on support and technical advice than an experienced Senior Professional, who may benefit from a peer to peer approach. 

Throughout your candidate’s RICS APC journey, we recommend Counsellor meetings at least every three months. These can be in person or online. 

Why become a Counsellor? 

There are many reasons that you may wish to become an RICS APC Counsellor! For example, you can give something back to the surveying profession, raise the profile of RICS (and of ACES) and help to maintain high professional standards. It can also be used as supporting evidence towards the FRICS fellowship characteristic, ‘Service to RICS’. 

As an APC Counsellor, you will have a varied role, including some of the following support roles: 

• Helping your candidate to choose their route, pathway and competencies 

• Planning and monitoring CPD activities 

• Reviewing your candidate’s diary and logbook to review their overall progress 

• Supporting with your candidate to draft their final submission, including selecting examples at levels 2 and 3 and choosing a case study topic 

• Helping your candidate to prepare for their final assessment interview, including Q&A sessions and a mock interview 

• Signing off your candidate’s submission 

• Supporting your candidate if they are referred. 

Top 5 Tips to be a Great RICS APC Counsellor

Top 5 tips 

1. Know the RICS APC process inside out, so you can better support your candidates. This includes being familiar with the candidate guide, pathway guide, potential competency choices and the RICS Assessment Platform 

2. Encourage your candidate to drive the process. You are there to support and guide them, not to complete the APC on their behalf! Give them the right support at the right time, but don’t do everything for them. A good way is to give them tasks to complete and then to reflect on the output with your candidate in your Counsellor meetings 

3. Plan ahead! Set an action plan with your candidate over the next 12-18 months to keep them motivated and to ensure that they remain on track. Do appreciate though that sometimes work and life get in the way and the plan needs to remain flexible 

4. Help your candidate to identify any gaps in their experience, skills or knowledge and find ways to address these. This could be through rotating into another team, going on secondment (for example, to another tier of local authority property activities), undertaking work experience, or shadowing or assisting another surveyor 

5. Be honest. When working with your candidate, there should be no surprises at the sign off stage. Give them honest feedback in your Counsellor meetings and ensure that you only sign off a submission that is genuinely of the standard required of a chartered surveyor by RICS. If you sign off a candidate who is not ready, it will not provide them or you with any benefit and it only risks disappointment and a referral. Signing off a candidate is a very important role and puts your own professionalism, as a Counsellor and as a chartered surveyor, on the line – so it is not a decision to be taken lightly. 

Hopefully this article has provided some inspiration to support the next generation of chartered surveyors – starting with becoming an APC Counsellor and Assessor. In our next article in this series, I will be focussing on how to run successful mock interviews. This relies on the effectiveness and fairness of assessing and the ability to listen and challenge candidates respectfully and intelligently. 

 RICS Assessor