Counsellor guide

Assessment of Professional Competence

Counsellor guide
August 2015
Assessment of Professional Competence Counsellor guide

Published by: RICS, Parliament Square, London SW1P 3AD.

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content and design, are owned by RICS, except where otherwise described.
Any dispute arising out of this publication is subject to the law and
jurisdiction of England and Wales

Counsellor guide 2
Assessment of Professional Competence Counsellor guide

Foreword
I am grateful for the contribution that you are making to RICS through
committing your time and expertise to support potential new professionals.
The Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) is the start of a lifelong
professional commitment to our standards for thousands of people each
year. As an APC counsellor you play an important role in ensuring that those
following the APC have the experience and potential to fulfil our ethical
standards and professional competency requirements to become members.
Your role in preparing candidates is vital to the effectiveness of the
assessment and the success of candidates. This guide explains what
support you should offer to plan and review their experience and prepare
them for the final assessment.
Thank you for your commitment to RICS and to ensuring the future of
the profession. I hope you will find the role both professionally and
personally rewarding.

Sean Tompkins
Chief Executive

Counsellor guide 3
Assessment of Professional Competence Counsellor guide

Contents
Section 1
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 05

Section 2
Providing support to candidates following a structured training programme ............................ 06

Section 3
Providing support to other APC candidates ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 08

Section 4
Preparing for final assessment ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 09

Section 5
Supporting the referred candidate ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Counsellor guide 4
Assessment of Professional Competence Section 1

Introduction
All candidates pursuing professional membership of RICS must appoint
a counsellor, who is a chartered surveyor, to support them, to guide them
and to sign them off as competent to sit their final assessment interview.
This guide provides an overview of the counsellor (and supervisor) role
for all APC candidates. It is essential that as a counsellor you familiarise
yourself with the APC candidate guide and the appropriate pathway guide.
The principles behind your role as a counsellor are the same for each type
of candidate but there are variances in the programmes the candidate will
need to follow. The professional standards, competence requirements and
final assessment interview are identical.
As a counsellor you will support any of the following APC candidates:
· RICS accredited degree – At least 24 months’ structured training and
a minimum of 96 hours’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
· RICS accredited degree with a minimum of 5 years’ relevant
experience – At least 12 months’ structured training and a minimum
of 48 hours’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
· RICS accredited degree with a minimum of 10 years’ relevant
experience – Demonstrate a minimum of 48 hours’ Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) over the preceding 12 months.
No structured training period required.
· Bachelor degree (or membership of a RICS approved professional
body) with a minimum of 5 years’ relevant experience (at least
12 months must be post qualification) – Successfully complete
the preliminary review and a minimum of 48 hours’ Continuing
Professional Development (CPD).

Please note: Candidates who have an accredited degree and over ten
years’ experience will be able to submit for final assessment as soon
as you feel they are competent to be assessed. Although they are not
required to complete a preliminary review they may apply for one.

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Assessment of Professional Competence Section 2

Providing support to candidates following

a structured training programme
• RICS accredited degree + up to 5 years’ relevant What tasks would you need
experience
to complete to support your
• RICS accredited degree + 5–10 years’ relevant
experience (pre-degree experience can count)
candidate?
• Read the APC candidate guide and chosen pathway guide

The structured training is in place to enable the candidate to demonstrate • Help the candidate choose the appropriate pathway and competencies
how they have gained the skills and abilities needed to perform specific on enrolment
tasks or functions as required by the competencies for their pathway. • Support, guide and encourage the candidate
In this case your role as an APC counsellor is to: plan the training • Plan and monitor their continuing professional development – CPD
programme, monitor the progress and guide the candidate throughout their • Discuss whether they need additional experience or training and agree
training period. It is also recommended that the candidate appoints an APC who will organise it and how they will gain it
supervisor ideally selecting someone who has day-to-day responsibility for • At six monthly reviews use both their diary and logbook to assess them
the candidate and knows their work well, to provide a regular assessment of against their competencies and review their overall progress
progress against the competencies of the candidate’s chosen APC pathway. • At six monthly reviews work with your candidate to update the summary
of experience template and review the logbook
Note: Preferably, both roles should be undertaken by members of RICS • At the halfway point review, liaise with the supervisor (if they have one)
and from the same area of professional practice as the candidate. and the candidate, agree progress and focus for the coming months
• At six monthly reviews judge what competencies have been achieved
and when. Are they ready for final assessment?
• Discuss the topic for their case study. What would show the best spread
of skills, which will cover 2 or more technical competencies? What project
have they worked on in the last 24 months that best demonstrates their
analytical ability and ability to give sound professional advice?
• If you have a supervisor in place, work with them to give the best advice
and guidance to your candidate to help them in preparing for the final
assessment presentation and interview
• Liaise with the supervisor and make sure that all the relevant
documentation is included in the final assessment submissions
• Conduct a mock interview to help them prepare for the type of questions
they may get asked.

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Assessment of Professional Competence Section 2

If you are appointed as an APC supervisor, you will need to complete the
following tasks/activities to support your candidate through to their Assessing progress
assessment: A key element of any supporting role is the assessment of your candidate’s
• Read the APC candidate guide and chosen pathway guide progress against the chosen pathway competencies. A key aspect to the
• Help the candidate choose appropriate competencies on enrolment successful management of the training period is therefore your in-depth
knowledge and understanding of these competencies. The competency-
• Support, guide and encourage the candidate
based approach, while still assessing what people know, also assesses
• Plan their continuing professional development – CPD what they can do. You have to ensure that your candidate not only has the
• Give guidance on how to capture their experience in a diary to transfer knowledge and understanding but can also put this into practice.
into their summary of experience and log book
If you are the candidate’s manager you will already be doing much of what
• Regularly review the log book. Are the competency references correct? is required to assess them, using similar skills to those for appraising staff:
Are they claiming too many days or not enough?
• be aware of how they are performing in day-to-day activities,
• Help the candidate interpret the competencies to ensure that they assessing competencies such as working in a team, problem solving
receive credit for all activities carried out and working to deadlines
• Assess your candidate against the competencies every three months, • look at work they have produced, learning more about their technical
updating their summary of experience template and log book and professional knowledge and understanding
• At the halfway point, review progress with the counsellor and • ask questions about why they chose a particular approach, exploring
the candidate their knowledge and understanding – this will help in developing their
• With the counsellor, assess whether the candidate has achieved the case studies and prepare them for their interview
competency requirements of the APC pathway and has all the relevant • ask about the wider implications of their work, testing their
evidence for the final assessment submissions understanding of the whole work environment.
• Support and guide the candidate on the case study layout and topic.
From this you can begin to form a judgement of how well they are doing.
Read it with them a number of times to guide them. Make sure they
The point at which they are competent, to level 2, is when you are confident
check it for grammatical and spelling errors
that they can carry out an activity without supervision to a standard
• Prior to final assessment, discuss the candidate’s progress and that is acceptable to you and for level 3, that they are able to give sound
readiness with the counsellor. Complete the summary of experience professional advice.
• If the candidate has been referred, agree a plan of action that will Candidates need guidance and support to get the most out of their training
allow the candidate to remedy the deficient areas as per their referral programme. This is particularly important where you have reviewed their
report. Work closely with them to help them build confidence and progress and have decided they are not yet competent. The candidate
understand the reasons for the referral. requires clear guidance on where they need to develop. They may not
realise there is a problem and miss out on a learning opportunity. These
issues should be dealt with at the three/six monthly reviews.

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Assessment of Professional Competence Section 3

Providing support to other APC candidates

• RICS accredited degree + a minimum of Your role as an APC counsellor is to:
10 years’ relevant experience
• Discuss the candidate’s career, relevant experience, chosen APC pathway
and the most appropriate competencies that reflect the work that the
• Bachelor degree (or membership of a RICS
candidate does in their day to day environment
approved professional body) + a minimum of 5 • With your candidate review their self-assessment against the core and
years’ relevant experience (at least 12 months optional competencies for their chosen APC pathway
must be post qualification) • Agree the most appropriate way of filling in any gaps where experience
shortfalls are identified
Before the candidate can progress, you as the counsellor must
• Discuss the candidate’s continuing professional development activities
be satisfied that they have achieved the required levels in all the
during the last 12 months and agree a plan. (All APC candidates are
competencies needed for their chosen APC pathway. You may not have
required to complete 48 hours’ of CPD each year).
personal knowledge of the candidate’s experience in all the chosen
competencies as they may have achieved some of them a number of • Regularly meet to review their progress against all the competencies
years ago, and possibly in a different job. As a counsellor you must know and the development of their submission documents
the candidate’s work: this knowledge may be built up through discussion • Discuss the topic for their case study – what would show the best spread
and questioning with the candidate and any previous employers (where of skills, does it cover 2 or more technical competencies? What project
possible). You should preferably be from the same company as the have they worked on in the last 24 months that best demonstrates their
candidate, and ideally should be their manager. analytical ability and ability to give sound professional advice?
• Ensure you are confident in the candidate’s skills and ability as well as
that their submission is accurate, contains no errors and meets the
stated requirements before they submit for their preliminary review, if
required.

Counsellor guide 8
Assessment of Professional Competence Section 4

Preparing for final assessment

It is the responsibility of the APC counsellor (and supervisor if appointed) to communication and being part of a team. The best way to judge this is to
ensure that the candidate is competent in all the required areas and to the observe them in their normal working day. Be objective in your assessments
required levels before applying for the final assessment. Candidates must and give your candidate honest and reasoned advice.
not come forward for final assessment too early – this is the biggest reason The main ways to assess candidates are:
for candidates being referred.
• Observation in the natural course of your work and theirs
The final assessment interview is primarily competency based and your
• Examination of their work, asking them questions about their work
candidate will need specific skills for this. It is extremely important that
and the decisions they make
you plan this with the candidate, ensure that they have a good working
and well-rounded knowledge of their APC pathway, RICS ethics and • Speaking to other people who know their work for confirmation of
standards as well as detailed experience of the core and selected their abilities.
optional competencies. When looking at the work produced by your candidate, find out what they
did themselves and which aspects were done by teamwork. Talk to them

Ethics module at length about this. The following questions will help determine whether
they have met the competencies or not.
All APC candidates are also required to successfully complete the • Is the work they have produced relevant to the competencies they
RICS online ethics module prior to final assessment. This is made up are claiming?
of three elements: • Is it sufficient? Are you sure they could do this again in similar
1. The ethical standards and what they mean circumstances?
2. Real life ethical scenarios that members have faced • Are they drawing upon current experience? If the examples they are
3. A 20 question multiple choice test. using are not current, can they still complete the task accurately and
professionally?

Judging the evidence For some of the competencies, you should have enough recent knowledge
of your candidate’s work to be able to judge from personal experience.
Think about the type of evidence that will best demonstrate your candidate’s However, they may tell you that some of the competencies were achieved
competence (for example reports, valuations, correspondence). Base your in the past, perhaps ten years ago or more. For these competencies,
decisions on actual evidence of work produced rather than their ability you will have to form a judgement based on your discussions with them –
to talk about what they do. Competency-based assessment is about the you may feel you have to ask some probing questions to assure yourself
candidate being able to operate under normal work pressures, such as that the candidate’s experience is of sufficiently high quality and is using
interruptions and tight deadlines. It is also about having interpersonal skills, current practices and legislation.

Counsellor guide 9
Assessment of Professional Competence Counsellor guide

The candidate must be competent in all the required competencies to the

required levels before applying for final assessment. If you use a variety
of assessment methods and get to know their work over a period of time
you will be able to make a sound judgement. Your candidate cannot apply
for final assessment until you have certified that, in your opinion, they have
reached a level of proficiency that justifies attending the final assessment.

Note: When you certify a candidate as competent on their summary

of experience and application, you are confirming that not only can
the candidate do the task in their current organisation but, allowing
for minor differences, could also do so in another organisation. Most
importantly, you are confirming that you consider this candidate to be
suitable to become a chartered surveyor who will uphold the rigorous
standards of RICS. You are signing a declaration in your capacity as an
RICS member and as such you are bound by the RICS ethical principles
and rules of conduct.

Counsellor guide 10
Assessment of Professional Competence Section 5

Supporting the referred candidate

Your support and guidance will be of great importance to a referred
candidate. Ask them to write a few notes about their experience in relation
to the interview and the referral report contents. When you meet, adopt a
counselling style of interview.
Help them understand the outcome of the assessment and accept the reality
of the situation. They must take ownership of the outcome and either accept
the result and not seek to blame anyone else or (if you feel that there are
grounds for an appeal) provide you with evidence to support an appeal.
You and your candidate must agree how to address the deficiencies identified
in the referral report. Take the time to do this thoroughly, both you and your
candidate need to be confident that you have a plan which will help them
to gain the further experience and development necessary to reach the
standard required the next time they take the assessment.
To be eligible for re-assessment candidates should:
• complete some further relevant professional experience
• continue to complete their CPD
• write a new case study or re-submit the same case study as long as
the project is no more than 24 months old
• agree together how best to address the deficiencies identified in the
referral report
• if they are following a structured training programme, they must continue
to maintain and record their experience until they are successful
• provide an updated summary of experience covering all the competencies
you have gained further experience in since your referral focusing on
any areas identified in your referral report (200-300 words in total
per competency).If you are following a structured training programme,
you must continue to maintain and record your experience until you
are successful.
The candidate will then be re-interviewed in the normal manner.

Counsellor guide 11
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