An Analysis of Early Career Training Requirements for Quantity Surveying Professionals

Abstract

Early career experience can play a significant part in lifelong professional capability and the support and knowledge gained during the early years of graduate employment can influence future career direction and success. Whilst there are prescribed models of graduate development relative to the surveying professions, for example, those relating to the APC utilised by the RICS, there has been little evaluation in terms of their relative contribution to career success. Through the use of a questionnaire survey, the issue of learning and development for new graduates in their early career, the extent to which new graduates perceive themselves to be competent in various major quantity surveying activities and, the range of graduate training provided by the employer were explored. The main conclusions drawn from the study are that: new graduates exhibit a high level of self-doubt in professional competence; task competence is influenced by frequency of application, years of postgraduate experience and the mode of study taken by graduates in entering the QS profession. There is a difference between training received by graduates working for consultant and contracting employers. Graduates from full time study mode tend to receive more training from their employers compared to part time graduates.

Professional, Academic and Industrial Development Needs: A Competency Mapping and Expert Opinion Review

“…What was clearly found in this research is that this process produces a graduate less confident to face the industry and an employer less satisfied than they might otherwise be. This clearly confirms the findings of Lee and Hogg (2009).…”

“…Both the RICS and the educational sector show similarities in their lack of appreciation of the specific requirements industry may have Downloaded by [The Aga Khan University] at 04:16 07 February 2015 of its newly graduated student members. At the same time the industry does not seem to appreciate that a graduate is a person with higher intellectual capacity to rapidly further develop their professional skills and technical knowledge once in employment (Perera, 2006;Lee and Hogg, 2009;Simpson, 2010). This conflict and lack of alignment of industry, academic and professional perspectives create a barrier to the development of the profession as well as the career development of the graduate Quantity Surveyor.…”

“…Hence, there is a tripartite pull on the development needs of the Quantity Surveying Graduate. The present education system of the Quantity Surveyor does not recognise these multi-directional needs and hence often produces a graduate whom the industry sees as not fulfilling their requirements (Wong et al, 2007;Lee and Hogg, 2009;Perera and Pearson, 2011). This leads to many problems, with greater levels of employer and graduate dissatisfaction and obstacles to early career development of the QS graduate.…”

Sustainable development in a construction related curriculum – quantity surveying students’ perspective

“…In the general built environment education sector, few researchers (see cowling et al 2007;Iyer-raniga et al 2010;cotgrave, Kokkarinen 2011) had explored students' perceptions to reorient education to address sustainability. existing studies in Quantity Surveying (QS) curriculum (see ekundayo et al 2011;Perera et al 2013;lee et al 2013) have focused on QS competencies and their application in the delivery of QS degree programmes, and QS early training. few of these studies that examined sustainability in QS curriculum (see ekundayo et al 2011) developed a sustainability framework relevant to QS degree programme.…”

Students' views on their education and the future

“…The things we are taught -will they want this in the workplace? Lee and Hogg (2009) looked at the development of confidence among graduate quantity surveyors. They found a 'strong relationship between confidence and frequency of use'.…”