Today’s post I am going to talk about getting on the path to becoming a member of the RICS (‘MRICS’).
Why get the MRICS status?
The RICS website describes the MRICS as the highest industry standards.
Even though its value is quite high, personally I rather have the MRICS status to enable me to work around the world without a lot of grief on qualifications. I personally like travelling, especially around East Asia, the culture is fantastic!. It opens a lot of doors and opportunities in your lifetime. You have a lot more freedom in your career and in your life.
Of course..the average salary for a Chartered QS is much higher, but it comes with the price of maintaining your membership subscription as well as Professional Indemnity.
As previously discussed in my first post, a QS is a very important individual on a construction project/business. He is the interface dealing with the client and all the supply chain from the beginning of the project to the end. He plays in one of the critical roles in the cash flow of business.
Routes to MRICS
I am currently enrolled on the 12 months structured training for my APC. Even though I qualify for the preliminary route, I strongly feel doing the log book will help in getting all the competencies out of the way - hence structured training.
The diary will help you demonstrate how you have gained the skills and abilities to undertake the specific task. For me, under the 12 months structured training, I have to demonstrate 200 days of logs and 48 hours of CPD. I am planning on delivering online presentations via Google hangout or seminars on this website. You can register here if you are interested in joining in on these seminars.
6 Routes to get your MRICS
Structured Training Route
The following two routes applies if you have an RICS accredited degree
#1 12 Month Structured Training
You can join this route if you have completed 5 years experience and you have an RICS accredited degree. This is the route I have chosen for my APC.
#2 24 Month Structured Training
You can join this route if you have less than 5 years experience and you have an RICS accredited degree. You may also join this path in your last year of studies on your accredited degree course. Incidently, when I enroled with the RICS, they first placed me on the 24-month structured training as I was unable to prove my experience at that time.
#3 Prelim Route
This route is available for QSs who have 5 years relevant experience (this means you have undertaken QS roles) and you 12 months post an unaccredited RICS bachelor’s degree. This is what I had, I was on the Commercial Management (Quantity Surveying) undergraduate course at South Bank University.
Other Routes
There are three other routes that may not apply to the majority of you.
#4 10+-year Experience Route
This is where you have 10+ years of relevant Quantity Surveying experience and you can apply through this route.
#5 Senior Professional Assessment
This is where “you have 10 years or more relevant experience, and now in a senior industry position, either in terms of management responsibility or acknowledged expert specialist status. (With an undergraduate degree or equivalent professional qualification and a relevant postgraduate degree (master’s level or higher) the experience requirement is reduced to five years)” - more info
#6 Approved professional body membership
This is where you have a chartership with one of the approved professional body membership such as MICE, IMechE, etc… You can view a full list on the RICS website.
The RICS published this nice flowchart that explains the different paths to MRICS.
Enrolling onto the APC
To enrol onto your APC you can now pay online via the RICS website.. This is actually very useful, I was procrastinating from submitting my application because I had to print, fill in the form by hand and submitting it. Which was a hurdle and the only time I have to myself is traveling to work and between gym and home.
The only requirement you would need to have to fully complete the enrolment is to have a scanned copy of your degree certificate. Once you upload the certificate you will be presented with a checkout where you'll need to pay the £600-750 fee. Unfortunately my application went tits up, and my account was deleted and I accidentally paid for the prelim route. It was fairly easy to swap over from the prelim to the structured route but I had to submit my CV so that I could go onto the 12 month structured route.
The fee is the enrolment fee and the subscription fee. For the structured training, it will cost £502 for the enrolment fee and £151 for the subscription fee. For the prelim entry, the application fee is £599 and the subscription fee is £151. (prices dated 19th of August 2015 - more information can be found here).
You can download the enrolment guide here for more details and the memerbship requirements can be found here.
For more information about joining you can email join@rics.org or call 02476868433.
