APC competency: starting out on your journey

You may have decided that you are going to enrol for the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence but have some concerns. Will I get enough experience? Will I get the right type of experience? Which pathway? Which competencies? This article will hopefully help in making those decisions. Experience The APC is experience-driven. All pathways have mandatory technical competencies that candidates are expected to have experienced in their day job. The first question you should ask yourself (assuming a structured training route) is: “What work experience am I likely to gain over the next 12/24 months?” As assessors, we encounter candidates, especially in the more focused pathways, who have repetitive experience in a very narrow range of competencies. They can ace a single competency to Level 3 but struggle with others as their day job was just too focused – for example, financial modelling. The APC is a test of both depth and breadth. Before embarking on the process, you should be confident that you will get the necessary range of experience documented in the pathway guide. Also, are you likely to be in a position to provide reasoned advice (Level 3) to clients, including internal clients if you are client-side, or will you struggle to achieve beyond Level 1 or 2 (knowledge and doing)? Support As an absolute minimum, you must have a counsellor, who must be a chartered surveyor (preferably in your chosen pathway, otherwise it may be difficult to establish competence). Depending on how closely you work with your counsellor, you may also have a supervisor. These roles, probably together with human resources, are part of your support team. The RICS APC is now a highly structured process and has changed considerably from the one your colleagues may have undertaken. It is critical that they are familiar with the current process and can sign off achievement of Level 3, in line with RICS requirements. At the initial stage, together you should make a realistic assessment of your likely work projects and the probable depth and breadth of experience you will gain from them, including how much responsibility you will be given for providing reasoned advice. The APC is not easy (and it shouldn’t be because of what it means for the rest of your working life) and, especially in the run-up to the final assessment, you will require dedicated study time, in addition to CPD and training on the way. There will undoubtedly be time implications which you and your support team may need to discuss. There may also be budgetary implications. In addition to signing off experience, you should also be factoring in someone to proofread your submission, mock interviews and general support and advice. The time implications are not just on you. Unless there are colleagues sitting the APC at the same time as you, you also need to think about finding some other candidates to work with. Experience has shown that studying in a vacuum makes a challenging process much harder. Ideally, you need someone with whom you can share useful articles and bounce questions and answers off each other. A small group is even better. If you are struggling, approach your local RICS Matrics branch for assistance. Make the effort, get involved. RICS guidance At the outset, you must (not should) read the RICS APC guides thoroughly (and repeat the exercise every three to four months). These include the candidate guide, the pathway and competencies guide and the counsellors’ guide. Once you have read these three documents you should have a strong grasp of the APC framework, including: Routes to entry Pathway options The range of mandatory, core and optional competencies What to expect from your counsellor/supervisor Diary and minimum logged days requirements CPD requirements Submission format and structure Final assessment interview process and structure. A thorough understanding of the “journey”and destination are highly recommended for a successful APC experience. Route, pathway and competencies While there are a number of entry routes, your personal circumstances or career experience (to date) will, most likely, decide your route, ie APC 24, APC 12, APC with a preliminary review, etc. Most candidates fall into one obvious route. If you are considering any of the routes other than via structured training, critically assess your experience against the requirements – because the assessors will. Having read the pathway guide, you may be confused by the myriad options. Having done this, your first two questions are likely to be: which pathway? And which competencies? Depending on your pathway, you may also be required to elect a specialism, such as landlord and tenant; more on this later. In terms of pathway, most candidates fall into one – for example, commercial property (CP) or property finance and investment (PFI). It is often described as “the job you do”. However, after a critical review of your likely experience at the time of assessment, you may find that an alternative pathway matches your likely experience better, so be open-minded. A critical difference between your chosen pathway and competencies is that you cannot change pathways mid-APC without resetting the clock to some extent and prolonging your time to assessment, but you can change your optional competencies, with a little less impact, if, for example, your actual experience changes during the APC period. All pathways have core competencies, such as in CP, inspection, measurement and valuation, together with optional technical competencies. Although slightly confusing, you will need to refer to the pathway guide throughout the process, so download the correct version (check that you are doing so, especially if you have enrolled after August 2018). The optional technical competencies and their stated level can be fluid up until you submit, although you need to be continually thinking about breadth and depth of experience and whether you can meet the pathway guide in terms of sufficient competencies achieved. Also, you don’t want to be changing competencies at the last minute and not achieving the level of experience required. Remember, every change is likely to have an impact on your submission and assessment timeline. While that is no big issue, it is, however, a consideration. You need to be realistic about how much responsibility you will have in any Level 3 competencies because assessors will be asking about reasoned advice you have given. While some employers do rotate their candidates, this might provide breadth without depth. Spending two years in a single role may provide excellent depth, but inadequate breadth. I frequently see candidates who are struggling with at least one of their Level 3s, and think they can resort to embellishing actual experience or, even worse, lying. My general advice is that it is better to defer assessment in order to achieve the appropriate level of experience rather than get referred, although I appreciate the pressures of employers and the stress of lengthening the process. Remember, the APC is all about competence, and not time served, so if you get to the minimum time requirement, say 24 months, this does not automatically mean you are competent and should rush to be assessed. Be level-headed and sensible – that extra six months of preparation could be the difference between a pass and a referral. Flip side, don’t always be putting it off either because, in our experience, the older you get the more responsibilities you have and the less time available to dedicate to your APC. You can do it The APC is challenging but eminently passable, based on the hundreds of people who pass each six months. Familiarity with the process, appropriate choices of pathway and competencies, a suitable support team and a rigorous approach all combine to make it less stressful and massively more successful. Focus: rules of conduct and professional ethics Five ethical principles: #5 – good business ethics Our fifth and final principle is a great one to finish with and has echoes of our third principle, because it is all about our actions. This principle offers up my favourite ethical phrase: “mutual vulnerability” — what does that mean? Well, simply, what I do to you I expect you to do to me. So in our decision-making we are susceptible to our actions and the actions of others. This promotes the ethos of “pausing” before acting and just thinking about how you are required to and should treat others. It is all about building respect and developing and maintaining our individual or company reputation. We are certainly not born with this; it is not something you can buy — it is a product of hard graft and exemplary ethical business. I have always maintained an ethos of openness and transparency in all that I do. In most instances this has worked well but, on occasion, it has come back to bite me, with others who themselves may not have made the correct ethical decision. But it has only served to strengthen my ethical resolve – and the reputation loss for the other party is potentially catastrophic. Warren Buffet said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” And another saying: “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” Remember, reputation and respect is not a right, it must be earned — and that’s good ethical business. Resources RICS Rules of Conduct  DeLever Network; instant APC messaging and the facility to ask a question of APC experts  Masterclass recordings on rules of conduct and ethics (formal CPD)  Mock interviews, final assessment and presentation masterclasses  Commercial Property Quick Start Revision Guide  DeLever myAPCDiary  Click on the links below to read the other features in this series: Submission possible: how to wow the APC assessors APC competency: fixing for final assessment APC: negotiating the final hurdle APC competency: what to do if you’re referred Ralph Charlwood FRICS is a DeLever APC expert coach, mock interview assessor and RICS APC assessor and chair Image: Design Pics Inc/Shutterstock