The key to supporting the next generation is finding them

COMMENT Having a good education is said to open the door to anything you want to do in life. Giving you the opportunity to follow your dreams, your chosen career and the ability to do better than the generation before yours. However, the reality for many children growing up in the UK couldn’t be more different. For some, they are simply unable to follow their dreams because their family cannot afford the books and materials they need for school, or the cost of a university education. Livery companies like the Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors, for which I am master, stand for three things – education, charity and fellowship – and they have done so for the past 850 years. WCCS has been a great advocate for young people’s education and their route into a surveying or property-related career since its inception in 1977. The livery company is made up of almost 400 members, and many are leaders of the property industry’s largest firms, whose companies are already doing fantastic work in providing education and employment opportunities to young people. It is keen to attract a greater number of leaders from across the industry who want to give something back to their profession and help shape the change the livery company is working towards. WCCS has been instrumental in growing apprenticeships in the property industry. It set up the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust in 1983, has supported four inner-London schools for more than 15 years – Robert Clack School in Dagenham, St Saviour’s & St Olave’s School near Elephant & Castle, SE1, Archbishop Tenison’s School Academy in Oval, SE11, and Central Foundation Girls’ School in Bow, E3 – and provides funding for students through its university bursary. That bursary has funded 10 students through their university education, this year it grows to 14. I hope that by the WCCS’s 50th anniversary in 2027, we will be supporting 50 students every year. The key to being able to support so many young people is finding them. We are working with our members’ firms to encourage people in those businesses to approach the schools they already know in their area and offer our schools programme to them. We are also working with the other livery company schools and offering our schools programme to them. There are 4,188 secondary schools in the UK, and we would like to start making a dent in those. The potential impact of these schemes on diversity and inclusion in the property industry is fantastic and we are of course not on our own in working with schools and providing entry routes into our profession. Pathways to Property, which was featured in EG’s Talent special last month, is doing fantastic work and we have partnered with them to provide financial support to four of their students this year. We have great plans for change at the WCCS and now is the time for action, not just for the livery company, but the industry as a whole. John Woodman is master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors and senior partner of Hollis Picture © Louise Haywood-Schiefer