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What is this week's blog about?
In this week’s blog, we take a look at the RICS APC structured training route and introduce our new free templates for your diary and summary of experience.
What is structured training?
Structured training is just one of the RICS APC routes to final assessment.
It requires a minimum period of training which allows you to gain sufficient, relevant work experience aligned to your chosen competency choices.
Your training must be structured to allow you to meet the requirements of your pathway and to write a focussed, experience-based summary of experience as part of your final assessment submission.
Who can (and should) undertake structured training?
Structured training is primarily for RICS APC candidates who hold an RICS accredited degree and less than 10 years’ work experience.
If you have a RICS accredited degree and over 10 years’ experience, then you will be able to proceed directly to final assessment without the need to record any structured training.
Remember though, there are also other routes, e.g. Senior Professional, which may be appropriate for you depending on your experience and qualifications.
Take advantage of our free 15 minute consultation to discuss which route is right for you before you embark on your RICS APC journey.
What duration of structured training will I need to undertake?
Up to 5 years’ relevant experience – you will need a minimum of 24 months’ (400 days’) structured training
5–10 years’ relevant experience, including that obtained pre-degree – you will need a minimum of 12 months’ (200 days’) structured training
When can I apply for final assessment?
As a minimum, you can apply at the end of month 11 or 23 and sit your assessment after month 12 or 24, depending on whether you are on the 12 or 24 month route.
However, these are only the minimum requirements and many candidates need or want to undertake further structured training. This will ensure you have sufficient varied experience across their competencies and that you feel confident to proceed to final assessment.
You should only come forward for final assessment when you feel ready to do so.
Who supports me during my structured training?
Regular meetings with your Counsellor (and Supervisor, if you have one) will help you to monitor your RICS APC progress and structured training.
If you are struggling to find a Counsellor or require additional mentoring support, please book your free 15 minute consultation and we will be able to help.
You may wish to fill out a Candidate Training Plan together to formalise your structured training – you can download a copy from the RICS website.
You will only be able to submit your final assessment submission when your counsellor is happy that you have fulfilled the minimum training requirements and have sufficient, relevant experience to meet the requirements of the RICS.
How do I record my structured training?
As soon as you have enrolled onto the RICS APC, you should begin to start recording your work-based experience in your APC diary.
Your diary will be used by you and your Counsellor (and/or Supervisor) as an aide when writing up your summary of experience. It will not be directly assessed by RICS, but it can be requested by your assessment panel to review.
Your diary will also form a useful document for your quarterly Counsellor (and/or Supervisor) meetings. Having it in an offline format can help, particularly as you can create a summary of your progress and identify potential gaps in your experience to target.
We recommend using our free template on a daily basis, ensuring you upload the details on a weekly or monthly basis to the online RICS Assessment Resource Centre (ARC) diary.
This should help to make the task of recording your experience easier, whilst ensuring you have an offline copy of your diary to hand at all times. You can also search, sort and filter your experience to help you to write your summary of experience.
Ensure you record sufficient details, e.g. property/project and basic details, as well as any key outcomes and relevant competencies you fulfilled.
You should only record periods of ½ day or more, so it is advisable to ‘block’ experience together to keep your diary easy to manage and focussed around your individual competencies.
You do not need to record any experience relating to your mandatory competencies in your diary, but this will still form part of your summary of experience requiring practical examples at levels 2 and 3 where appropriate.
How do structured training and CPD overlap?
You should not be logging CPD in your diary or work experience in your CPD record.
Keep them separate, think of CPD as meeting level 1 requirements, i.e. gaining knowledge, and your diary as meeting level 2 and 3 requirements, i.e. doing/assisting/shadowing work or advising clients.
If you are seeking free CPD support resources, just click here.
How can we help?
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Head to our blog archive to access even more free CPD and AssocRICS and RICS APC training and support.
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Find out more about our bespoke AssocRICS and RICS APC training and support, before booking your free 15 minute consultation.
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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.