Professional Experience Route Candidate Guide

Professional Experience Route

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Applicant submission guide

Submission
Overview............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Summary of experience................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Preparing a case study.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Recording your CPD.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Organisation chart................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 RICS assessment.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Result...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Appendix
Submission checklist......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Submission
This guide takes you through the submissions process for the Professional Experience Route to membership, which requires you to submit written evidence to demonstrate your level of competence. Before completing the submission you will have paid an assessment fee that covers this process and a nal assessment. The nal assessment includes an interview. This is only open to those who meet all the requirements indicated in this guide in addition to meeting the required competence standards. It is important that your submission provides an accurate representation of your capabilities as these will be fully tested and cross-referenced in a face-to-face nal assessment interview that ultimately determines whether you have met the competence requirements.

Choosing your competencies

You will need the relevant pathway guide with you to complete this. At the application stage you chose your pathway. Now you should select, from that pathway, the technical competencies you opt to be assessed against. When you have chosen them, enter them in the relevant section of the submission template. Your summary of experience and case study will be assessed against your chosen technical competencies, plus the mandatory competencies.

Approach to take
The summary of experience allows you to show how you have developed depth of knowledge and practical ability throughout your career. The contents of your summary of experience will be drawn from your education/training and your work on a number of projects. The case study will allow you to demonstrate your competence from another approach. The focus of a case study is on one specic project. The project you choose should allow you to demonstrate a range of technical and mandatory competencies, and how you used the competency skills to achieve a successful outcome

Overview
You must provide the following written evidence:  summary of experience against required competencies for your chosen pathway case study organisation chart. CPD record Once you have submitted your evidence, an assessor will decide whether you have demonstrated your competence sufciently to be able to progress to the nal assessment stage.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Summary of experience
For your summary of experience, you must write a brief statement about each of your technical and mandatory competencies. It is important to ensure you have a copy of the pathway guide for your chosen pathway with you when you are completing this stage. The guide gives denitions of the competencies, with practical examples of relevant tasks. In your summary of experience you will explain how your education, training and experience show that you have achieved each competency, using examples from your career. Once you have completed the statements you should review them as a whole: together, they form your summary of experience. In addition to showing your abilities in individual competencies, they should provide the assessors with an overview of your career, the work that you do and the levels you are working at. Your summary of experience should be between 2000 and 3000 words in total. RICS is not looking simply for evidence that you can do a relevant job (i.e. as a technical operative), but that you are operating at a level with considerable personal responsibility for decisions that have a signicant effect on clients (i.e. as a broad-based professional). You should demonstrate progression beyond what would normally be expected of a new graduate in a rst role. For example, with ve years professional experience you should be able to demonstrate that you are undertaking work that reects a broad range of the competencies for the pathway. With ten years experience, you may have progressed in a number of ways and could: be covering a broader range of projects and duties have moved up the management structure  have become a specialist, focusing on one particular area but demonstrating considerably more expertise  be covering the same work since your career started, but be working under less supervision and leading on some projects or accounts, or becoming involved in contributing to the work of another professional body. Your summary is expected to reect this.

The competencies are defined in three levels, from level 1 through to level 3. The following information will help you to understand what is required at each of those levels. If the competency you select is a level 3 competency, you should ensure you write the summary to level 3. You must include a brief statement for Level 1, (Knowledge and Understanding) and Level 2 (Practical Application). Level 3 competencies are the most important: they are crucial to demonstrating that you practise at a professional level. Follow the format outlined in the submission document.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Knowledge and understanding (level 1)

Explain what learning/training you have done, and when, to gain level 1 in the competency. This may have been through formal education and/or formal training in the workplace or on-the-job experience. If your degree is relevant to your chosen pathway, you can draw on this to indicate how you have gained the required knowledge. Alternatively, you may have developed your knowledge and understanding through targeted formal training. Formal training could include online courses, in-house seminars or workshops, distance learning, academic study, day-release programmes, structured learning or mentoring. You may have participated in a training programme developed by your employer or in partnership with a training provider. In order to reduce the number of words used, you can provide a list but you should include some brief detail, if necessary, to ensure that the assessor can be condent the education/training is relevant to the competency.

Reasoned advice (level 3)

Where you have indicated you are at level 3 or the pathway requires level 3 to be achieved, explain the professional advice you have given to clients. Provide examples that describe the nature of the advice, the options you considered and the outcome. The advice should be predominantly your individual responsibility, rather than collective. It should demonstrate that you are working with minimum supervision. The advice should have signicant nancial or strategic implications for the client, and should be given on behalf of your rm in order to full your contractual obligations to the client.

Preparing a case study

You must write a case study of 2000 words. You may attach illustrations, plans and appendices, provided they can be scanned and uploaded. Please keep attachments to an absolute minimum: anything of importance should be included in the written case study. Additional documents should be attached only if they are directly relevant to the competencies you are demonstrating in your case study. Your case study should demonstrate as wide a range as possible of your technical competencies and the mandatory (general business) competencies, and an understanding of the ethical dimensions of your work. Bear in mind that you will use this case study to make a 10 minute presentation to the nal assessment panel. List the technical competencies and mandatory competencies demonstrated in each case study in the box provided in the submission document. The template also provides a text box for you to describe briey the context, if you wish. This allows you to set the scene with some details of your career and does not count towards your word count.

Practical application (level 2)

Show how you have put your knowledge and understanding into practice. Briey review your career and the activities you have performed that are relevant to this competency. The following may help you to structure your statements: refer to projects you have been involved in  identify the type of client - but be aware of your clients condentiality. You can describe companies, buildings or land in nancial terms (revenue, value) or in terms of size (large, small), area (oor size, levels, capacity) or location (local, international, worldwide) describe your own role  explain how your involvement demonstrates your practical competence.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

The case study should focus on a single project or piece of work undertaken in the last 24 months where you played a leading role in terms of any or all of the following: strategy implementation management decision making problem solving client relationship management.

Recording your continuous professional development (CPD)

You must list the CPD you have completed over the past 12 months. Your record should refer to a minimum of 20 hours of training and development. Undertaking CPD is a commitment to the continual updating of knowledge and skills throughout your professional life in order to remain competent. It is essential to achieving and maintaining RICS membership. Your CPD record is a log and evaluation of the learning activities that have built up your skills towards your mandatory and technical competencies. It should be gained in a systematic, structured manner and be based on a process of selecting, planning and evaluating the activities. Learning activities can be formal or informal and can include: Private learning: reading, online learning or similar which you have undertaken independently. Organised learning: a learning event provided by a training company, college or similar. Work-based learning: training provided in your workplace. This may include in-house training courses or events put on by your employer; instruction or mentored practice in new tasks; reading, study or online learning required by your employer in order to equip you for your role.

The content of your case study is more important than the style, but it should meet the standard of writing expected in a professional report prepared for a client. You should be condent that the case study demonstrates the following:  your understanding of the competencies (core, optional, mandatory competencies) at least two technical competencies (core, optional competencies) a range of business and technical skills (mandatory competencies) the level of your responsibility

at least one example of personally giving reasoned advice to a client. While writing the case study you should be aware of what evidence you have already provided in your summary of experience and ensure that the level and scope of activities you are describing is consistent with what has been detailed in the summary. The assessor will look at the summary of experience and case study individually, but will also take a holistic view. Review all your written evidence together before you submit it, and make sure there are no gaps or contradictions.

Organisation chart
You must provide an organisation chart that clearly shows your own position, and your place in the structure both of your immediate department and the organisation as a whole. Use the submission checklist (see appendix) before you submit your written evidence to ensure the submission meets the requirements.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

RICS Preliminary Review

Your submissions will be read and assessed by a trained assessor who is an RICS member specialising in your eld of practice. The assessor will consider the totality of the evidence you have provided. This includes:  Professional experience, academic and professional body membership information from your application form Summary of experience Case study CPD record Organisation chart. Before the assessment date, the assessors will check your submissions to determine whether any conicts of interest exist. If they do, RICS will make arrangements to manage them. The assessor must decide whether, on paper, you have demonstrated a suitable prole and level of competence to proceed to your nal interview. The assessor considers all your evidence against the competency requirements for your pathway, and performs a gap analysis. The assessor will also consider your mandatory competencies (general business skills), including ethics.

Result
You will receive one of the following results at this stage of the assessment process. Ready for nal assessment Not ready for nal assessment

Ready for final assessment

You will be informed of the result by RICS within 6 weeks. You will receive a feedback report advising you of the next steps, which includes completing an online ethics module (to be completed in your own time) before your nal assessment is scheduled. The report may include pointers about areas you need to focus on before your nal interview. Any area highlighted is likely to be tested further at the nal assessment interview. You are now able to prepare for your nal assessment. This can include any updates to your summary of experience that reects the work you have undertaken between preliminary assessment and submitting for your nal assessment. This must not take your summary of experience over the word count of 2000-3000 words.

Not ready for final assessment

You will be informed of the result by RICS, within 6 weeks. You will be notied that you have not demonstrated the required competency standards and will receive a feedback report explaining in detail why the assessor did not consider you ready to proceed to nal assessment at present. The report will advise you of the steps you need to take in order to demonstrate the required standard. You will need to resubmit your preliminary assessment to demonstrate you have met the areas of concern that the original assessor identied before proceeding to nal assessment.

Assessor feedback report

If you are assessed as not ready, the feedback report will include: a summary of the competencies you have yet to achieve a decision on your case study (satisfactory or unsatisfactory) suggested actions that you should complete.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Addressing the gaps

Knowledge and understanding
If you have not provided evidence of the underpinning knowledge and understanding for one or more technical competencies, you will have to demonstrate, before you can be interviewed, that you have taken reasonable steps to gain that knowledge through further training or academic study. RICS has a network of universities offering accredited courses: they will normally be your rst choice of provider for appropriate modules. Other providers may be suitable but you will have to demonstrate that the learning you have undertaken is from a reputable source, at a high enough level, and covering the right subject areas.

Banking competency statements and case studies

If any of the individual competencies described in the summary of experience is assessed as satisfactory, they it will be banked. Similarly, if the case study is assessed as satisfactory it will also be banked. Provided you complete the prescribed actions within the feedback report, you will not need to submit any more evidence on the banked competencies or case study. You will however always be required to update your CPD record.

Mandatory competencies
The assessor will make a preliminary assessment of your mandatory (business) competencies, including ethics. You will not be prevented from going forward simply on the basis of these non-technical competencies. The assessor may, however, identify any that have not been covered, or where your evidence does not look particularly strong. This will help you work on these competencies before your nal interview in which any or all of them may be covered.

Practical application
If you have not provided evidence of sufciently broad and high-quality experience to demonstrate practical application of one or more technical competencies, the report will recommend that you gain further experience in this area.

Reasoned advice
If you have not provided evidence of giving reasoned advice to clients, for a level 3 technical competency, you will need to gain further experience in this area.

Appeal
You have the right to appeal against the assessors decision. The appeal procedure will be explained in the feedback report.

Resubmitting for assessment

The requirements for resubmitting will depend on how much of your original submission has been assessed as satisfactory. The feedback report will advise you what documents you need to resubmit once you have completed the suggestions as set out in your feedback report. You must reference the actions you have taken to address the gaps that were identied by the assessor. You can use the initial text box to briey describe the action you have taken and when.

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

Applicant Guide
Professional Experience Route

Appendix Submission checklist

Your submission must include: Summary of experience Case Study CPD record Organisation chart

Checks for the case study: Context section completed (optional) Case study focuses on only one project or piece of work Project/work was undertaken in last 24 months Two technical competencies are demonstrated (minimum) One mandatory competency is demonstrated (minimum) Your level of responsibility is demonstrated  One example of level 3 technical competence (reasoned advice) is demonstrated (minimum) Client condentially is upheld  Technical and mandatory competencies covered are listed beneath the case study Word count is a maximum 2000 words

Checks for the summary of experience: Chosen technical competencies meet the requirements Mandatory competencies meet the requirements Competency name and reference number completed correctly  Competency level correctly identied according to pathway requirements Summary demonstrates competence to the levels required  Summary is closely linked with competency denitions and examples given in pathway guide For level 1, reference is made to education, qualications or training  For level 2, reference is made to a range of projects and practical application of skills For level 3, examples are given of advice given to clients Client condentially is upheld  Word count is between 2000 and 3000 words in total.

Checks for the CPD record: 20 hours recorded for previous 12 months (minimum) Activities cover a broad range of competencies

Checks for all submissions: Accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar Writing style is professional

Applicant submission guide

July 2013

rics.org/experience

rics.org

RICS HQ Parliament Square London SW1P 3AD United Kingdom Worldwide media enquiries: e pressofce@rics.org Contact Centre: e contactrics@rics.org t +44 (0)24 7686 8555 f +44 (0)20 7334 3811

Advancing standards in land, property and construction. RICS is the worlds leading qualication when it comes to professional standards in land, property and construction. In a world where more and more people, governments, banks and commercial organisations demand greater certainty of professional standards and ethics, attaining RICS status is the recognised mark of property professionalism. Over 100 000 property professionals working in the major established and emerging economies of the world have already recognised the importance of securing RICS status by becoming members. RICS is an independent professional body originally established in the UK by Royal Charter. Since 1868, RICS has been committed to setting and upholding the highest standards of excellence and integrity providing impartial, authoritative advice on key issues affecting businesses and society. RICS is a regulator of both its individual members and rms enabling it to maintain the highest standards and providing the basis for unparalleled client condence in the sector. RICS has a worldwide network. For further information simply contact the relevant RICS ofce or our Contact Centre.
Europe (excluding United Kingdom and Ireland)
Rue Ducale 67 1000 Brussels Belgium t +32 2 733 10 19 f +32 2 742 97 48 ricseurope@rics.org

Asia
Room 2203 Hopewell Centre 183 Queens Road East Wanchai Hong Kong t +852 2537 7117 f +852 2537 2756 ricsasia@rics.org

Americas
One Grand Central Place 60 East 42nd Street Suite 2810 New York 10165 2811 USA t +1 212 847 7400 f +1 212 847 7401 ricsamericas@rics.org

Africa
POBox 3400 Witkoppen 2068 South Africa t +27 11 467 2857 f +27 86 514 0655 ricsafrica@rics.org

United Kingdom
Parliament Square London SW1P 3AD United Kingdom t +44 (0)870 333 1600 f +44 (0)207 334 3811 contactrics@rics.org

Ireland
38 Merrion Square Dublin 2 Ireland t +353 1 644 5500 f +353 1 661 1797 ricsireland@rics.org

Oceania
Suite 2, Level 16 1 Castlereagh Street Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia t +61 2 9216 2333 f +61 2 9232 5591 info@rics.org.au

Middle East
Ofce G14, Block 3 Knowledge Village Dubai United Arab Emirates t +971 4 375 3074 f +971 4 427 2498 ricsmenea@rics.org

India
48 & 49 Centrum Plaza Sector Road Sector 53, Gurgaon 122002 India t +91 124 459 5400 f +91 124 459 5402 ricsindia@rics.org