Monday 12 November 2007

diary

Dear Diary...

No, it is not that kind of diary.

I've finally took the plunge and start my RICS APC journey.

Meaning I have started my Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor's Assessment of Professional Competence training. *Beams proudly!*

Enrolment

The enrolment itself is a journey I would say.

During my recent appraisal, my boss and I had the convesation of me doing my APC.

I'm required by contract to do my APC and with that there are certain conditions attached. I signed my life away with regards to completing the APC when I first started the job. So there I was waiting for my boss to feed me more information or waiting from head office to send me more information (or package).

But I didn't get any. So I just sat and waited.

Of course being in a new job, you spend your initial time getting to grips with your work expectations and for me, looking for a flat and settling down as well.

At the appraisal, my boss indicated that I have to get this RICS APC thing sorted out. So within days after the appraisal, I got all the necessary paper work done.

As much as I wanted to go down the Project Management route (where my greatest interest is), I had to be more sensible and think about the support that I can get from the company as well as my day to day tasks.

In the end, I have to go down the Quantity Surveying - Civil Engineering route, which makes much Much MUCH more sense.

Then there is the membership subscriptions. My boss asked me if I could pay it first and then claim it back under expenses.

I replied 'I don't think I have £600 sitting in my account' (being at that time, I was just moving and had been very skint for the past few months). By the way, the subscription fee was £625 a year.

However, due to some glitches, AD (who is also enroling at the same time) and I had to wait for two weeks before we received the cheques to send off to RICS. The cheques finally arrived two days before the dateline!

The implication of missing the 31st October dateline was that the final assessment will be deferred by another six months.

Apparently, the cheques were sent from the parent office in London to the main subsidary office in Surrey, and then from Surrey to Glasgow office, when it was supposed to be sent from the parent office to the Glasgow office.

My boss wasn't too happy when I called and told him the news.

Anyways, RICS received our application in time and now we are on our way!

1st Training

We just had our first training this morning.

It was more like a discussion on what we are going to do. Nonetheless it was informative.

The good thing is that the parent company has a very structured training plan. They even have remote access, which means you can access files or the intranet from home. However, I still have to get that sorted. Am receiving two different stories about this.

I also found out from the RICS website a lot of useful information that I have missed out during my earlier visits there.

Anyways, I am expected to write an APC diary for at least 24 months. In the process, there will be meetings with my Supervisor every three months, and meetings with my Councellor every six months. When I am ready (in 24 months) there will be the final assessment - an interview.

I will have to balance studying on my own, meeting the various competencies set out and my day to day job. I'm excited and looking forward to this new journey and I hope it will be a very interesting one.

19 comments:

Unknown said...

How odd...I just googled "RICS diary APC" and it came up with a link to this...I have also just started my APC...and have 8 weeks worth of diary to make up, sorry, compile...was trying to find an example to see what kind of things people wrote and in what format...no such luck!

Suzanne said...

Hi Sophia, thanks for dropping by.

I'm trying to fill up the diary myself too.

If you drop me a line maybe I can show you a sample.

You can also find more info on the new RICS page.

Some say to write as much as possible. Some say you don't have to.

Check out: The Dreaded Diary. There are lots of other useful articles there as well.

The new layout is not very clear but if you click on the above link, then scroll up the page and find 'My RICS', you can find more info.

Also click on the 'More Related Articles' link on your right. There are lots of info there too!

Hope this helps.

Unknown said...

Hi

Have had a look around the RICS pages already, the new website was a little confusing to start with though - I was so used to the old one.

Have been writing a couple of sentences for each day which seems a little feeble but as you say, some say just write a little plus when you are doing more or less the same thing for a few days, it's hard trying to find different ways of wording the same task!

Suzanne said...

Yes, must agree that the new RICS layout is horrendous! Took me a while to find the articles I stumbled upon when I was browsing through the old layout. LOL!

Anyways, a colleague of mine just gave me a sample of his diary he wrote during his study work placement.

Does look really plain and simple. He did said that after a while, it is just a matter of copy and paste.

I sort of seeing that in my day to day work as well. A lot of repetative work happening on a weekly/monthly basis.

Unknown said...

Well at the moment...mine says "Processing data" a lot.

So it's good to hear other people are quite repetitive in their diaries! Was starting to worry.

Suzanne said...

Funny how we worry about this.

I wonder how it would be like when the Assessment Interview comes! >_<

Unknown said...

I'll be a dithering wreck!

Philip said...

HELP!
I too am trying to complete my APC diary and currently work for a very small company so have been getting minimal guidance. I've completed all the necessary forms but have no real idea how the diary should be layed out filled in. Any suggestions ideas? I think one of you said that you had a sample. Is there any chance of having a look at it or someone pointing me in the direction of a sample just so i am not wasting my time.

Thanks

Philip

Unknown said...

Hi Philip,

Only just seen this as dont check this email too often...

Are you sorted now? I work for a small company too so not even sure if what I've done is correct!

Anonymous said...

Hi Sophia,

I've been trying to get off to a start (taken over 6 months) but I wonder if I could see a sample of your diary; I don't want to start and do the wrong thing.

The company is just me and my boss who isnt RICS so neither of us know what to do!


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Matthew

Unknown said...

Hi

Could you give me an address to contact you on?! I haven't got much of a clue either but between us maybe we can get an idea!

Cheers

Suzanne said...

Hi Sophia, apologies for the long silence. You can get me at foosuzanne[at]hotmail[dot]com.

I've finally did a short write up with pics of the diary. You can check it out here.

riabev said...

Hi...

My name is Ria, I am long overdue starting my Diary and I have a meeting with my counselor on monday. I have been told that I still have some hope.

Anyhow...I am going to look at some samples and see what I should be writing! I alos work for a small company and I am only exposed to property valuation. I am based in Trinidad and Tobago by the way. It's nice to know there are others that I can talk to about my APC issues.. thanks guys

Ria

Anonymous said...

Hi guys,

I met up with my supervisor and I feel a bit more motivated to start. I have another meeting soon with him and my counsellor soon to discuss which competencies are best for me. As I mentioned, I too am from a very small company. No one here is doing the APC and I am not sure if I am going down the correct path with recoring in my Diary. Anyhow, I have a suggestion. Is it at all possible Sophia, Suzanne ( got yours, just need your permission), Phillip and Matthew to exchage email addresses and add to our msn or yahoo, gmail chat list?? which I am sure we are on very often....
Let me know what you think of it. We all have a common goal, and if we can communicate, share and motivate eachother as often as needed to achieve that goal...It will be super.
My address is ria_bev@yahoo.com (works with msn, and yahoo messenger) My Gmail is ria.mungal@gmail.com. I am most often on msn messenger..Hope to see you guys on soon.

RIA

Suzanne said...

Hi Ria,

Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad that you are more motivated in your APC training.

I must admit that it is not easy, especially each of us will be busy working as well.

Have a read at my take on Changes to APC Process.

THe RICS website is also an excellent place to look out for info, even for non-UK candidates.

Also, if you click on APC Journey, I've written some posts on my APC journey.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of reading: for knowledge and refresher. But we will just have to make time for everything. Studying, diary, training, events, etc.

Speaking of which, try to find your local RICS Matrics (you can do a search on the RICS website for this). Go for their talks (which counts towards your CPD hours) and social events to meet more people, networking.

Good Luck!

p.s.: When is your Final Assessment?

Glyn Hunt said...

Hi.

I did my APC during 2004 ~ 2007. Best thing I ever did in my life career wise. I now work offshore on oil rigs, and the MRICS qualification literally transformed my life letting me buy a house, get out of debt etc etc.

Something you may be interested in. I created excel spreadsheet diaries to help me maintain the various Work Diary / Log Book / Professional Development records I was obliged to keep.

I now sell these as cheaply as possible since I remember just how angry the cost of my APC training made me. They're sold via my company GMH Diaries at http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/GMH-Diaries.

They're all using the July 2006 APC/ATC competency guidelines, and tailored to mirror the APC 2006 and ATC 2007 templates. Their use also makes it much easier to compile the APC Dec 2008 (UK)"APC pathway template" excel spreadsheets that RICS now require.

Good luck with your final assessment!

Glyn Hunt

Anonymous said...

It's *institution* not 'institute' you'll not impress them at your assessment getting that wrong! :)

Suzanne said...

Hi Anonymous, thanks for highlighting the error. Can't believe it was that long ago now.

Anonymous said...

Hello Suzanne,
I just started doing my APC but just doing my Placmenet in University. ITs been a long time since your first post just wondering if you passed? What did you think of the interview?
Gerogie :)