Young, gifted and non-technical?

You can’t manage something you can’t understand. Basic common sense, maybe, but this is also a truism that underpins a skills gap in the profession.

“They have a management-related degree, but they can’t manage the technical part of it,” says Janet Green, Gleeds’ corporate human resources manager, of the new generation of surveyors.

Green is not the only one to have noticed that an increasing number of young QSs fresh out of university have no understanding of measurement methods and a limited – verging on non-existent, in fact – technical knowledge. The situation is a bit similar to a lawyer who is adept at standing up in court and giving an opening address or can cross examine a witness, but who lacks the knowledge of the basic tenets of the law.

This lack of basic skills costs consultancy firms time and money, because of the further training incurred. Surveyors used to come in almost equal numbers from a technician route and a graduate background. But in recent years, those coming from the latter route have increased substantially and the industry has had to send the young recruits back to school.

The situation may be about to change again, however, as the RICS intends to expand the number of fully qualified surveyors at a technician level. Andrew Howe, vocational team leader at the RICS, says the Institute will launch a national campaign in September to increase the number of technical members, in an effort to help counter the imbalance between technical and administrative membership.

This initiative emphasises that technicians have been seen as the poor relation so far, Howe adds. With the appropriate marketing approach, the image of the technical role in surveying might improve – which would be a step forward in attracting recruits to that side of the profession.

Consultants and university lecturers agree that changes in clients’ demands of practitioners, and procurement changes – such as the move to design and build contracts, where the contractor takes overall responsibility for the cost of the project – are to blame.

David Clark, managing director at Matrix, says, “Students are taught management instead of core business measurement methods, because a lot of clients want cost managers. But at the same time, clients do want a full QSing service.”

Courses miss out key skills

Companies soon find out that their young employees haven’t gained the more rudimentary techniques, says Keith Tweedy, a senior lecturer in property, surveying and construction at London South Bank University. “In the new procurement method, the measurement has been passed on to the builder. As a result, QSs have no real need for measurement skills,” says Tweedy. But in practice, when a young QS has to assess work on site or a live cost plan, it’s soon realised these skills are actually needed, he added.

Tony Kelley, director of marketing and recruitment at the school of property, construction and planning at Birmingham University, says that some universities have been modernising their course towards cost and project management regardless of the real needs of the industry. Kelley doubts many young surveyors know their SMM7 (Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works), the “Bible of the profession”.

Meanwhile, Gleeds’ Green says: “It’s partly the fault of the industry. We are not bringing school career advisors to the industry to show them what it is really about.” Universities, because of their funding problems, had to make the course more general to draw more people in, she explains. “Technical skills are not taught because universities think that there is not a market for it. Employers do think there is a market for it.”

From this paradox stems a series of practical problems at the beginning of the surveyors’ career. Matrix’s Clark wonders how the new recruits can give an estimate of a building cost if they don’t understand how the building is constructed. “Surveyors need to be able to talk to the client with confidence. Our profession is mainly about giving advice and we need to come from a position of strength,” he says.

Clark adds that it puts a strain on the company. “More than the financial burden, it’s the time senior people have to spend on mentoring which is a problem.” Anthony Banfield, a tutor in valuation at the College of Estate Management in Reading says that the demand for in-house basic skills courses has increased. The young employees, he says, “are less efficient and initially less competent”.

Gleeds’ Green admits that the company needs to invest more money in training and that it creates extra work for employees themselves, but she’s adamant the firm never loses money on projects because of the young employees’ lack of basic skills. With health and safety issues being paramount, everything needs to be checked and authorised, so the weak grasp of technical knowledge is not a risk.

Consultants are keen on supporting their staff, but as Birmingham University’s Kelley points out, not all companies are equally equipped to do so. “Some companies are excellent and have structured in-house programmes which comply with the RICS requirements. They have the sufficient resources to do that,” he says. “However it is more difficult for smaller companies to generate training.”

Most companies actively seek to set up partnerships with universities. Franklin + Andrews regional managing director, Andy Willis, a joint author of Elements of Quantity Surveying, says that his firm is working with London South Bank University in an effort to “fill the skills gap” they've identified among their younger employees. LSBU’s Tweedy estimates that 18 hours of seminars are necessary to gain the required skills. The training budget varies considerably according to the company’s size, from £150 to £500 per person and per year, but consultants interviewed for this article said that they had around 30 employees each year that needed to be taught basic skills.

This recognition that the industry is lacking technicians might ultimately lead to a change in the recruitment process. Gleeds’ Green says that the situation raises a long-term question: “Shall companies take people at 18 straight from school, put them through universities and train them part-time – or hire graduates?” A new option is to look eastward. “In China and South-East Asia, universities are still delivering the skills we used to have,” she says, and Gleeds is bringing some of these students to the UK for work experience. This move is likely to be copied by others if the UK can't produce the ideal surveyor - an excellent manager and a great technician.