Counsellor guidance

For information about the role and requirements, visit Be a Counsellor.

When a candidate nominates you as their counsellor, RICS will email you asking you to accept or decline the role.

If you choose to accept, you’ll be asked to confirm that you:

• Agree to act as the candidate’s counsellor. 
• Will complete the mandatory Counsellor Training via the Assessment Platform. 
• Have read and accepted the Counsellor Commitment Statement.
   

If you need help, contact the Candidate Support Hub at candidatesupport@rics.org.

The counsellor’s primary role is to verify that:

1. Through careful enquiry of the candidate’s experience and their knowledge of the RICS assessment requirements, the counsellor considers the candidate has met the minimum competency levels and is ready for assessment.
2. The content of their submission is a true representation of the candidate’s own work, that agentic and generative AI was not used in the production of their submission, and that their submission complies with the requirements stated in the candidate guide, including maximum word count.
    

As a counsellor, responsibilities include:  

• Acting as an unbiased, critical friend
• Providing input into the candidate’s professional and personal development in relation to the achievement of the competency standard
• Having direct knowledge of the candidate’s relevant work experience and the competencies evidenced
• Having direct knowledge and experience of local legislation that applies to the candidate’s job and tasks
• Having detailed knowledge of the RICS assessment requirements and verifying that the submission complies
• Where applicable, engaging with the candidate’s supervisor to support the candidate’s development.

You should expect to spend around 2 hours a month supporting each candidate during their training. The time commitment usually increases as they move closer to assessment, particularly when guiding them on content for their submission, reviewing their submission and, for Chartered candidates, taking part in mock interviews.

The number of candidates a counsellor chooses to support is a matter of personal judgement. However, RICS recommends counselling no more than five candidates at any one time. This is an advisory limit, and RICS recognises there may be circumstances where counsellors support more candidates.

Counsellors must carefully consider the time commitment involved and their duty of care to candidates. This will vary from candidate to candidate based on their level of experience.

Some counsellors provide “paid-for” services to candidates. In these cases, payment must be for support and training only. Payment cannot be received for signing off a candidate as ready for assessment.

An appropriate contract for services must be in place between the counsellor and candidate, making this explicitly clear.

Any declaration is made in the counsellor’s capacity as an RICS professional and must be carefully considered with reference to the RICS Rules of Conduct.

Please contact candidatesupport@rics.org and RICS staff will be able to action this if the candidate has not already updated their record.