THIS month saw a quartet of graduate surveyors from Shepherd pass their final Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) and be elevated to MRICS status.
A clear demonstration of Shepherd’s confidence in the outlook for Scotland’s property sector, the four surveyors are located throughout the firm’s recently-expanded network of offices and encompass both commercial and residential surveyors.
Steve Barnett, partner in Shepherd’s Glasgow office, said: “These four graduate surveyors are the end product of our continuous programme of investing in graduate surveyors, training them and putting them through their professional qualifications.
“This, together with the fact that we have opened two more offices in Scotland within the past few months – at Forfar and Dumbarton – and some key new appointments provides mounting evidence of a resurgence in the market.”
The four graduate surveyors at Shepherd who passed their final APCs were commercial surveyors, Sandy Falconer, based in Stirling, and Alasdair Holwill, Aberdeen, and residential surveyors, John Broadley, Aberdeen and Stewart Lewis, Coatbridge.
Says a spokesperson: “Shepherd has a well-established programme of investment in training new graduate surveyors. As well as partner, Adrian Stott’s additional roles as assessor, chair of assessors and auditor of assessors with overall responsibility for APC training, fellow Shepherd associate, William Laidlaw, and partner, Ewen Sparks, also act as assessors, demonstrating the firm’s unparalleled commitment to the APC process and ability to provide candidates with all the information, advice and assistance they need to help them through their APCs.”
ENDS
For further information please contact Steve Barnett at Shepherd tel 0141 331 2807
Issued on behalf of Shepherd by Liquorice Media tel 07971 823651
Date 10th December 09
Notes to Editors
• All graduates joining a firm of chartered surveyors and embarking on a training programme for their Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) must first have an RICS accredited degree. In Shepherd’s case, they will then be invited to sign a structured training agreement which, as an RICS accredited training provider, it is required to have. This agreement is designed to ensure that candidates will receive sufficient experience whilst working diligently towards an APC sitting.
• In return, Shepherd supports APC candidates by giving them time off work for studying as required, subject to the normal constraints of business, and provides them with payment for submission to the APC.
• There is typically a minimum 24-month training period before a candidate can be presented for an APC. Yet whilst the core values and elements of training programmes are dictated to firms by the RICS, the delivery of APC training differs from firm to firm. Whilst each firm will have its own preferred training programme, graduate trainees can expect to receive a combination of hands-on training, theoretical learning and practical experience, such as shadowing experienced surveyors with a view to exposing them to as broad a range of surveying specialisms as possible.
• The RICS requires graduates to keep a diary, a log book and to provide forward planners of professional development. At the culmination of two years, a candidate’s assessor, supervisor and counsellor meet to decide whether or not the individual has reached the level required for an APC. If so, candidates will present themselves at Stirling Management Centre for an hour long face-to-face interview with three fully-qualified members of the RICS for a peer review to establish whether they have met the competences they claim to have reached during their two year’s training.
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