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What is this blog about?
In this week’s blog, Property Elite consultant and Land Surveyor and Geomatics Consultant at MJ Rees & Company, Alan Thunhurst FRICS, explains how RICS APC candidates can achieve success in the Geomatics pathway.
Alan commenced training as a land surveyor in 1965. He became a director of a chartered land surveying company in 1981 and managing director in 1996. He retired from this position in 2011 but continues working as a geomatics consultant.
Having been elected a Fellow of the RICS in 1988, he has been a member of various RICS Practice Panels and currently acts as an assessor and chair for APC panels in the Geomatics pathway.
His experience covers a wide range of land surveying, mapping and measurement projects and includes the preparation of reports and court appearances as an expert witness in relation to various boundary and measurement disputes.
He is also a member of the RICS Dispute Resolution professional group.
You can download the Geomatics pathway guide here.
How can you demonstrate competence in Geomatics?
All successful design, development and construction projects rely on precise and accurate mapping and measurement at the start, and throughout, the process.
How can candidates in geomatics surveying show they have attained this competence, in particular?
The RICS pathway guide for Geomatics surveying states that:
`Geomatics is the science and study of spatially related information focusing on the collection, interpretation/analysis and presentation of the natural, built, social and economic environments. As the underpinning information provider of the land and property life cycle, geomatics is of fundamental importance to society.`
What are the general requirements in terms of the three RICS APC levels?
The general requirements for this pathway by level are, briefly, as follows.
At Level 1, you should demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of geomatics and the scope and content of related documentation, including different types of specification.
At Level 2, you should provide evidence of undertaking geomatics projects, at both outline and detail levels.
At Level 3, you should provide evidence of giving reasoned advice to other parties, such as architects, engineers, scientists and surveyors, and preparing the full design and completion for a variety of geomatics projects.
What type of surveyor will I qualify as on the Geomatics pathway?
Candidates who successfully complete this pathway may select from the following chartered alternative designations:
‘Chartered Land Surveyor’.
‘Chartered Hydrographic Surveyor’ (candidates pursuing this must take the Hydrographic core competency to level 3).
‘Chartered Engineering Surveyor’ (candidates pursuing this must take the Engineering surveying core competency to level 3).
What type of work can I do as a Geomatics surveyor?
The professional group counts the following areas, all of which a chartered land/hydrographic/ engineering surveyor could potentially work within, as relevant:
Land and hydrographic surveying
Mapping and positioning
Global and local navigation systems
Geographic information science
Engineering survey
Cadastre and land registration
Private, regional and international boundaries determination
Dispute resolution and expert witness
Land law, administration and reform
Cartography
Photogrammetry and remote sensing
Spatial and metadata management, interpretation and manipulation
Land, coastal and marine information management
Ocean bed and resource surveys
Monitoring of structures
Project management
Research and consultancy
How should I select my competencies?
It is most important that you give careful thought to your choice, level and combination of technical competencies.
We all work in specialist areas, therefore your choice will inevitably reflect the work you do in your day-to-day environment (driven by the needs of your clients/employer). In effect, you are choosing your own assessment criteria.
At the final assessment interview, the assessors will be judging your application based upon the selected technical competencies. They will expect you to present a sensible and realistic choice that reflects the skills needed to fulfil the role of a geomatics surveyor in your field of practice.
Additionally, the assessors will be judging you on the mandatory competencies.
Therefore, in addition to demonstrating Level 3 in the Ethics, rules of conduct and professionalism competency, it is also important, for example, to be able to demonstrate how you put health and safety procedures in place in relation to your technical competency choices.
What do I need to do for my RICS APC submission and interview as a Geomatics surveyor?
Your submission for assessment must also include a case study of a project undertaken within the past two years, which, in effect, gives you the opportunity to demonstrate how you put the chosen technical competencies and mandatory competencies into practice within your working environment.
You will open the assessment interview with a ten-minute presentation based on your case study. It gives you the opportunity to update the case study and, perhaps, provide more technical data, but do remember that the chairperson will enforce the ten-minute duration.
Questioning, around your presentation and declared competencies will then follow for the remainder of the one-hour session.
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Stay tuned for our next blog post to help build a better you.
N.b. Nothing in this article constitutes legal, professional or financial advice.