Year 12 students were recently given the opportunity to attend a day organised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to find out more about the varied and exciting careers within the surveying profession. Sarah Noble, Head of Early Engagement and Enrolment at RICS, organised the event at St James Park and invited along four professionals from the sector to speak about their roles to students.

Students were pleased to hear that chartered surveyors are in great demand and can work around the world once qualified. It was very interesting for students to learn more about the many different roles within surveying, beyond the most well-known ones such as quantity surveying. They were able to find out more about how to enter the field, including opportunities via apprenticeships and undergraduate degrees, with further information on the latter from Jane Loxley, a lecturer at Northumbria University.  Mark Doherty and Laura Frost talked about their differing routes into the industry and the many and varied projects they had been involved in so far in their careers including hotels, leisure centres, schools, NHS buildings, universities and prisons to name but a few. 

Later students were given practical support on how to write their own CV and UCAS application, which will be very useful for them in the future. The final task of the day involved a brief to regenerate a Newcastle suburb with students split into teams. They were given time to discuss their ideas before working in smaller groups to build models and prepare their presentation to deliver later to the whole room. The students particularly enjoyed the challenges of this hands-on task and really got into the spirit of the event with lots of great ideas. 

Our students performed very well on the day and found the experience to be a very positive and informative one, which has given them lots of useful guidance to help them with their next steps into the world of surveying. Thank you very much to everyone involved in the event.