The APC (Assessment of Professional Competence) is the practical training and experience which, when combined with academic qualifications, leads to membership of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

To embark upon the Assessment of Professional Competence, you need to secure employment as a graduate surveyor with a company where you will (normally) be supervised by a qualified Chartered Surveyor. They will give you guidance on your training and day-today work. In addition, you will also be appointed a counsellor who oversees your progress and acts as a sounding board for any concerns or questions. The objective of the APC is to ensure you are competent to practise as a chartered surveyor. The APC normally consists of a period of structured training (normally 23 months during which you must complete a minimum of 400 days relevant practical experience) and a final assessment interview. To enrol on and start the APC, the candidate must be in suitable employment with a firm that has a structured training agreement in place (if this is not in place, provisional enrolment is still possible and should not delay you requesting enrolment). Key elements of the APC are as follows:

• Appointment of your supervisor and counsellor
• Selection of competencies
• Training, experience and professional development
• Recording your daily training in your diary and summarising this monthly in your logbook
• Regular meetings with your supervisor and counsellor
• Preparation for your final assessment submissions – records of your training and professional developmentand a 3000 word critical analysis
• Application for final assessment
• Final assessment interview
• Results

APC Pathways

The roles of the Chartered Surveyor are many and varied. Chartered Surveyors deal with all aspects of the land ranging from the rural environment to urban conurbations. All property and land needs to be managed and understood and that is the role of the Chartered Surveyor. Historically, the surveyor who undertook a range of roles across various specialisms was known as a General Practice Surveyor. Indeed, this used to be one of the principal APC routes into the profession and it is still erroneously referred to as such by many practising surveyors. However, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS www.rics.org) now recognises the breadth of skills and specialisms and has developed a number of APC pathways. The pathway you choose will be determined by your employment as you can only demonstrate competence in your chosen area of specialism on the basis of actual work experience. There are three groupings of pathways as follows.

Guides on each grouping are available from the RICS2.

• Property
• Built Environment
• Land

For the Property group the principal pathways are:

• Commercial Property

The work of chartered surveyors in this area covers all types of real estate used for business purposes. The principal sectors within commercial property are: retail; office; industrial and leisure. Commercial property serves a vast array of purposes supporting public and private sector businesses and services, from service industries to government to civil infrastructure. The exception is real estate related to agricultural or residential use.

• Finance and Investment

Property investment takes many forms, ranging from the traditional, direct ownership and trading of tenanted land and buildings, to contemporary capital markets where property revenues are traded as securities or indeed derivatives. Greater flexibility and availability of indirect property investment products, plus improved performance benchmarking data means that property has attracted growing interest as an investment asset class.

• Valuation

Property valuation is a core skill and forms part of the professional services provided by many RICS members. Accurate valuations are vital to a healthy property market and a stable economy, forming the basis of performance analysis, financing decisions, transactional or development advice, dispute resolution and taxation.

• Management Consultancy

Management Consultants provide independent, impartial advice in all areas of the business and real estate lifecycle. In the main, they identify and implement business solutions to real estate problems. They are natural strategists within any organisation where real estate plays a significant part in the business.

• Residential Property Practice

Planners, developers, agents, mortgage lenders, professional advisers (such as valuers and building surveyors), private and institutional investors and property managers are just some of the key professional figures that allow the property market to operate smoothly.

• Residential Survey and Valuation

RICS members working in this area provide a vital link in the home buying process. Surveys and valuations of residential property combine property market expertise with an understanding of buildings.

• Facilities Management

Facilities management (FM) is the total management of all services that support the core business of an organisation. Good facilities management makes a huge difference to the efficiency and productivity of a company, its staff and even its clients. Using best business practice, a company’s operating costs can be reduced while its productivity is increased.

• Arts and Antiques

The art and antiques market is greatly diverse. At one end are the collections in museums and in other public ownership, together with art and antiques owned by private individuals.

• Housing Management and Development

Housing management and development surveyors are spread across the world and will be required to adjust their work to the specific housing policies and processes that apply at both a national, regional and local level.

• Machinery and Business Assets

In the same way that property surveyors advise and act on property use for business purposes, machinery and business assets surveyors provide valuation and agency services for all aspects of machinery and business assets in the industrial, commercial and government sectors.

For the Built Environment group the Pathways are:

• Building Surveying

Building surveying is one of the widest areas of surveying practice. Chartered building surveyors are involved in all aspects of property and construction from supervising large mixed-use developments to planning domestic extensions. This varied workload can include everything from the conservation and restoration of historic buildings to contemporary new developments.

• Quantity surveying and Construction

Quantity surveyors are the cost managers of construction. They are initially involved with the capital expenditure phase of a building or facility, which is the feasibility, design and construction phases. Quantity surveyors work in all sectors of the construction industry worldwide.

• Project Management

Project Managers occupy a central role in the development process, driving successful completion of projects.

• Building Control

Building control surveyors ensure that that building regulations and other legislation are followed in the design and construction stages of new and altered buildings.

• Taxation Allowances

Taxation allowances surveyors combine the skills of a Quantity Surveyor with their knowledge of construction and experience of legislation, accounting and investment.

For the Land group the Pathways are:

• Planning and Development

The planning and development field is a specialist area, which impacts not only on the physical aspects of the built environment, but the social and environmental aspects as well. The profession is continually evolving with a wide range of environmental, economic, political and social relevance to its day-to-day activities.

• Rural

Rural surveyors enable the rural economy and environment to thrive and flourish in a variety of ways by virtue of their experience and expertise across a very broad and diverse range of activities.

• Environment

Every chartered surveyor must consider the environmental factors within the parameters of their profession. Environmental surveyors are specialists in all aspects of the management, monitoring and assessment of the environment in the context of real estate, land and construction.

• Minerals and Waste Management

Minerals are the raw materials needed to supply the construction and manufacturing industries and provide fuel for the world’s energy requirements.

• Geomatics

Geomatics is the science and study of spatially-related information focusing on the collection, interpretation/analysis and presentation of the natural, built, social and economic environments.

Guide used with permission from the Property Sector Focus Group.