Meet David Street MRICS: Lead Assessor in Australia and New Zealand

What motivated you to become an assessor?

I became an assessor early 2000’s whilst working at Davis Langdon, in London. I started assisting graduate’s through DL’s training programme partaking and leading a number of technical discussions based on core competencies. This developed into a residential course led by RICS assessors as graduates neared their APC. Naturally, I was encouraged to become an assessor and registered my interest with RICS. Almost immediately I was faced with 8 assessments over two days at Heathrow as my introduction to assessments, I can recount that I was just as nervous as the candidates on the first day, I was fortunate enough to have excellent guidance from the Chair and co-assessor on the day which enabled me to sharpen my questioning skills immediately with great effect.

On day two, I was audited as a new Assessor, some good honest feedback which helped me understand the APC process and provide excellent feedback to hone my new skills.

Some 25 years later, I am still just as motivated, as Assessors we are there to get the best out the candidates and assist them with next step of their professional career.

What does being an assessor involve?

Being an assessor, is a commitment to RICS and all of the graduates on their training programme. It is not just about turning up on final day, as an assessor you are an ambassador for the RICS and are required to play a vital part of the entire APC process. As an assessor I commit time to complete preliminary, senior and standard APC candidates. It is important that we maintain on top of all current assessment requirements, attend refresher training, and of course I am proud to be part of the assessor community, where I can share experiences, learnings and help other fellow assessors.

In your time as an Assessor, how would you say the role has changed over time?

There have been several minor procedural changes and new entry routes, I can remember my own daily diary that I needed to get my supervisor to sign each week, which is no longer required, however the APC process has largely stayed the same. The formal interview structure is the one constant, 1hour, that part has not changed along with the timing. There have been some excellent changes to interview process with signposting competencies and greater training on asking question at all declared levels and of course, starting with core competencies at level three to assist ion covering all declared competencies, how times can we all remember an assessor talking slowly through 20 level one mandatory competencies, sense has prevailed on that one.

What advice would you give to candidates, currently on the journey towards becoming members?

There are two areas of advice, firstly its about owning your declared experience, all too often candidates are not able to demonstrate their understanding of their declared experience, if you have written about it, you must be able to demonstrate your understanding., secondly, listen to questions, a well delivered question will tell you the level, for example, “you declared experience on NZS3910 contract, what other contracts are there”, or “ please explain how NZS3910 differs from NZS3916 contract, or “on project x why did you advise your client on the procurement route taken. Of course these are level 1, 2 and then 3 questions.

Why should other members sign up to be an assessor?

In my view we are all to quick to make negative statements, on a junior QS’s skills and training and how things get easier and it was much harder in my day, we forget what it was like to be a junior QS the pressures of learning, training and passing APC. Its our opportunity to give a little back and help in shaping QS;s and RICS going forward.

How has the journey towards becoming a member and then assessor, helped you grow/develop in your current role?

During my training period at ECHarris (London) the business fully supported all staff becoming chartered and developed a training programme along with a large group of counsellor’s, of course this added pressure to becoming chartered amongst my peer group, I was fortunate and passed on my first attempt and did not look back, I proudly had new business cards printed with MRICS on them, yes its all all-digital now, but it still has the same meaning, I am a chartered surveyor. During my early assessor years at Davis Langdon, I became involved and helped run the APC training programme, this gave me confidence in my learnings and i watched graduates become chartered surveyors. Overall my APC process, assisting in training and being an assessor is about making that step forward and develop relationships that last a lifetime.