RICS accredited degrees

[secondname24]

My son is planning to apply for an RICS accredited degree for Sep 25 start. He's interested in property and thinks it's the career he wants, but he's still in the stages of researching the different routes (there seems to be 22 from the RICS website).

What I was wondering is this - if you do a degree in say Quantity Surveying or Building Surveying, is it possible to switch tracks once you start your employment and professional qualification? Or are you stuck with the track you started on?

My son is in the same position (though he’s also looking at apprenticeships - but I think the same thing applies here). I don’t have any wisdom to offer though as I’m as confused as you! There don’t seem to be many surveyors on mumsnet!

I'm not a surveyor but used to work for RICS. From memory quantity surveying is the one that's hardest to switch to if you don't have the right degree.

The RICS accreditation is the important thing as that allows you to start your 2 year Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) process straight away on graduating. Some placements even count towards it and speed things up.

It's worth looking at the big graduate schemes to see what degree they are looking for. Knight Frank, Savills, Cushman and Wakefield and other big names would be a good place to start.

There's also a bursary programme to support diverse candidates which is run by the Worshipful Company of Surveyors. The bursaries can be very generous.

I studied surveying over 20 years ago so might be out of date but in my experience it wad very difficult to change track. Building surveyors are very different from Quantity surveyors and you also have General practice surveyors who do things like sales and rental negotiations.

Quantity appears very technical to me and QAs are a key member of build teams and work with architects etc.

Building surveyors deal with day to day running of large buildings.

General practice are a bit like estate agents and it helps to have those type of skills (sales and negotiations etc).

A lot depends on your personality and interests. I think Quantity surveyors are the best paid but general practice can make good commission but it can be quite a fickle and unpredictable.

Hopefully someone with more recent experience will come along soon!

He may need to decide what sort of surveying he wants to do and go from there. It's a hugely diverse and varied profession with so many options!

As an example, I studied Russian, then did a post-grad real estate diploma, ended up on a big London firm's graduate trainee scheme, and qualified as a general practice surveyor (worked mainly in international retail consulting after my APC). I am currently working (tho not as a surveyor) in a rural practice - which is completely different again!

The building and quantity surveying route is more technical and harder to switch to or from, but one of my former colleagues did one year of GP and then went back to uni to do rural and agricultural work and some of his credits counted.

The RICS is (IMO) a woeful professional body but they do have some careers advice so it's worth looking at their website and those of firms he likes the look of. If you have any local firms, then I would talk to them - I did work experience with several in my late teens to try and isolate what I wanted to do.

I totally disagree that GP surveying is the same as estate agency ..it's really not that simple; it's a hugely varied discipline and you can end up in agency, or investment, development, valuation, arbitration, estate management etc and as it's internationally recognised, very helpful if you want to work abroad.

Qs is very different to BS! What's his interest? Bs can be general or specialised but more room to move around. Depends on a levels too.

I can’t speak for the OP but my ds is attracted by the good pay, varied role and potential for getting out and about. He’s interested in property prices generally and has good business sense. His A Levels are Business, Sociology and Criminology. I don’t think he fully understands what each strand involves so I’ll get him to read the info on a couple of big firms’ websites - good shout to look at their graduate schemes, it seems that you need a QS degree to work in that area, but for some of the more general commercial roles it can be any accredited degree.

Major shortage of surveyors with the skills to assess buildings under the new Building Safety Act, if they can combine Building Surveying with fire safety you are onto a winner if you can get the prof indeminity insurance, the lack of which is holding some back from being able to actually use their training.

I forgot to add there are also surveyors who do home reports/mortgage valuations.

Thanks for all your input. I've looked at Knight Frank and Cushmans' websites. It looks as if for quite a few of their roles you just need an accredited degree (or any degree and you can do a masters with them), but there are some roles that are restricted to Quantity Surveying degrees. I think maybe he should look at the content of degrees and see which he'd enjoy most and go from there?

Both Reading and Oxford Brookes allow you to change between Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying or Construction management after your second year of your degree (Both are top choices for quantity surveying)
Oxford Brookes also has a compulsory work placement year which provides great work experience and helps make the decision easier. You can then switch over when you return to do the third year of your degree.

Thanks @TheJollyCoralEagle , that's really useful to know. I'm a bit terrified of the living costs in Oxford and Reading to be honest!

Yes that's very true. Oxford Brookes accomodation costs for their halls aren't too bad actually when I compare it to other unis. I'm not sure if they maybe subsidise it a bit. Definitely cheaper than the halls at Reading.
Both are definitely good choices. My son is torn between choosing which 2 to put as his firm offer.

I am involved in recruitment of QSs. t I imagine it's difficult to change BS/QS track once you're on it as they are very different.
The preferred route seems to be QS rics acredited degree or any degree plus masters QS degree then a graduate QS job for two years. These folks are massively in demand and 5/6 years after graduading can be earning £60+k .

I'd say the main downside of this career is you could end up being sent anywhere so there's a lot of travel and being away from home. That said the industry is becoming more flexible and there is more WFH these days to balance it out.

I'm a general practice surveyor. Nothing like estate agency. I am about 50/50 in the office v. visiting tenants. My job is to keep the tenants from burning the properties down (the stories I could tell!), keep the tenants paying their rent, getting the building surveyors and contractors to talk to each other, reminding developers to be realistic and preventing squatters from getting into vacant properties.

QSing is more closely related to building project management than building surveying. QS is a construction profession not really a “property” one. Does he want to work with architects and building contractors or with finished buildings?

If he is interested in becoming a QS and is on target for decent A Levels, then perhaps he should apply for a summer placement. Some firms also offer degree apprenticeships, with day release, for example at Reading. Do you live in London or the SE?

Just looked at the firm I know for a QS sponsored degree apprenticeship. As an indication, he would need to have achieved good passes in maths and English at GCSE and be on target for 96 plus UCAS tariff points.

Hi @LadyLapsang the OP seems to have disappeared. My ds is on a gap year and has now decided that he wants to go the Real Estate route, property management etc, rather than Quantity Surveying. He just applied to Savills and is waiting for the other big firms' apprenticeships to open.

He's going to do a UCAS application too, for some Real Estate courses.

My son has just started with Bidwells on a degree apprenticeship which gives him RICS. University one week in 4. Loving it so far!

My neice is at Northumbria doing real estate with placement year. Loves it and cheap rent! Also looked at reading, Oxford Brooke’s, nott trent and Cirencester

Career change... any building surveyors out there?
I've been working in LA planning as a planning officer for 6 years. It's been a good job for me while I have started our family. Flexible hours, decent team to be working with etc. only problem is that I'm feeling like I am not meeting my potential. I could complete a masters degree and progress but being honest, there's a bit of a limit in how much I would earn even if I did this and I'm really feeling like I need out of the Local Authority. Various reasons I won't go into.
I'm not very challenged, there's no place for me to progress at present, I don't love the inefficiencies, the politics, the constant verbal abuse from service users.

I'm in a good position to apply for a surveying degree. I have a geography degree, 6 years experience in planning and I could complete a masters in a year.
My ultimate aim would be to be self employed and have something I can work around school pick ups etc.
I'm nervous about taking on too much while having two littles (5yrs and 18m), whether it is worth it and whether to wait a little. I've sort of put my own career on hold while having them both because someone had to (no regrets, I love being a mum so much) but I need to work both for a salary (not struggling by any means but I don't want to worry about money and not working would put us in that territory) and because I need something fulfilling if I am to work!

Would love to hear positive stories of the strong women out there who have taken a leap of faith and changed to career and especially from any building surveyors out there!

@abubble look at Women in Surveying on LinkedIn. They may have some helpful information for you