Professional qualifications for property surveyors: all about the APC

Becoming chartered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a key milestone in a surveyor’s professional development. If you’re starting out in the profession, it proves that you’re an expert in your field, entitles you to put MRICS after your name and is usually rewarded with a substantial pay rise.

Getting chartered involves passing the APC, for which you need to be employed as a surveyor and have an RICS accredited degree. If you are being studying a postgraduate conversion course while working, you can work towards your APC while you are still studying.

What will I be assessed on?

The APC is based on competencies – the key skills you need to do the job. These include personal skills (eg communication), business skills and specialist professional skills. You will also need to know about subjects such as professional ethics and RICS rules. There are different competencies for the different disciplines, overseen by the various RICS faculties. Your employer will assess your competences before drawing up a programme of training for you.

How long does the APC take?

For graduates with no or limited practical experience, the APC must take a minimum of 23 months (during which you must complete a minimum of 400 days’ practical experience). If graduates have previously worked in the industry for five years or more, the APC can take less time.

Most large property firms run two-year graduate training schemes and the aim is that you’ll be ready to sit the final elements of the APC after this. However, the RICS allows you to defer the date of your final assessment if you’re not ready.

What will I do during the assessment of professional competence?

To complete the APC, you must:

• Show evidence that you’ve understood and applied the required competencies in your daily work through filling in RICS records
• Have regular reviews with your APC superviser (see ‘What will my employer do to help me pas my APC?’ below)
• Submit a 3000-word critical analysis essay prior to the final assessment
• Sit a final assessment interview.

It is also recommended – although not mandatory – that surveyors undertake 48 hours of professional development per year while undertaking their APC.

Assessment for the APC is famously rigorous and many recently qualified surveyors have told us that it is among the hardest things they have done. Not all graduates pass the first time, but your employer can do a lot to support you through the process, so do find out about the support each employers offers when you apply.

Choosing your APC pathway

The exact nature of the competencies depends on which of the 21 APC pathways that you decide to follow. The pathways include:

• Commercial property practice
• Environment
• Facilities management
• Housing management and development
• Planning and development
• Project management
• Property finance and investment
• Residential property practice
• Residential survey and valuation
• Rural
• Valuation
• See the full list of APC pathways on the RICS website.

As evidence of your competencies has to be found from your day job, your decision will be partly guided by the employers you choose to apply to: naturally, if you apply to a property recruiter that purely specialises in commercial property, you won’t be able to take a residential or rural pathway. Some firms, such as Cushman & Wakefield, only offer graduate jobs in specific pathways. In other property firms, your employer will help to guide your decision and it can be possible to change your specialism at one of your reviews.

What will my employer do to help me pass the APC?

This depends on the employer. All employers should appoint you an APC counsellor or superviser, who takes charge of your development and is usually a chartered surveyor themselves. All employers should also give you the time to attend RICS lectures and/or networking events to enhance your knowledge, if they don’t provide their own.

To meet the APC ‘s competency requirements, you need to undertake a broad variety of work. Many property firms ensure you do this by operating rotational training schemes; others will do this by not rotating you by placing you in a relevant department and ensuring you receive a range of relevant work. There are pros and cons to each method and you should really decide which method you prefer before applying to employers; different schemes work best for different types of people.

• Rotational or non-rotational property graduate training schemes: which is best for you?