APC competencies: building control pathway revised

The right pathway

21 February 2018

Chris Lindsay explains how the RICS Building Control pathway and competencies have been revised following consultation

In the April/May 2017 issue of the Building Control journal, we reported on the pathways and competencies review, including the consultation on proposed changes to the Building Control pathway (see pp.22–3 of that issue). One of the main outcomes of this consultation was that surveyors wanted to see the proposed changes in the individual pathway guides, the detailed documents that set out the particular requirements for an area of practice.

Consultation documents

Working groups were formed for each area, comprising representatives from RICS Professional Groups and employers, to draft the content of the new guides. These were then presented as part of a second-stage consultation that ran for 2 months during autumn 2017. The main consultation documents were:

  • 21 individual pathway guides; these were working documents for consultation, not reflecting the final branded versions
  • a draft of the new mandatory competencies, with expanded descriptors and examples
  • summary of the proposed changes
  • matrix of the proposed competencies
  • updated FAQs.

The comments we received were, on the whole, positive and, once the draft guides have been updated in line with these, the content of the new framework will be ready for implementation later in 2018. At the time of writing, the launch date is to still to be confirmed, but transitional arrangements will be in place for candidates to come forward for assessment under the current version.

New competencies

The current competencies for the Building Control pathway are included in the existing pathways guide. For the new competencies, see Table 1 and Table 2.

building control pathway 2018

Table 1: Main changes to competency requirements in the Building Control pathway

Table 2

Table 2: Overview of competency requirements in the Building Control pathway after revisions

Sample competency

To take one example, Fire safety is a core competency to Level 3. It is about having the skills to assess the level of fire safety in buildings and proposed building projects, and being able to advise how to achieve required levels of safety when they are not present (see Table 3).

Table 3

Table 3: Examples of likely knowledge, skills and experience required at each level

Assessment Resource Centre

Any changes to the framework need to be reflected in the Assessment Resource Centre (ARC), a tool that streamlines the process by allowing candidates to manage all their training, CPD and selected competency records online. User guides and instructional videos for the ARC are available on the RICS website. The ARC also enables counsellors to support candidates through each stage of the final assessment and, when required, sign off competencies and the candidates’ summaries of experience. All new enrolments in English from 31 January 2017 and all final assessments taken in English must now use the ARC. If you have any questions or comments about the review, please do contact us.

Chris Lindsay is RICS Global Education and Qualification Standards Manager

Further information

Download a complete “APC competencies: building control pathway revised” PDF