When our team members started their journey towards RICS Chartership they knew they would be tested to their limits. So, we’re sending them on a summer bootcamp – an Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) summer bootcamp to be precise!

Over a two-month period, our apprentices and members of our in-house APC Accountability Club will take part in weekly workshops hosted by senior team members at Solomons to gain knowledge and an understanding of key APC competencies at Level 1 standard. Both groups are currently working towards sign-off of these exact Level 1 competencies and have already read up on each subject so they can hit the ground running at the workshops.

Our North East Director, Ian Hedley MRICS will focus on Contract Practice and Administration; North East-based Key Account Manager, Craig Smallman MRICS will take a close look at Project Finance Control and Reporting; Mark Coburn FRICS – North West Director, covers Procurement and Tendering; Dominic Doig FRICS, Managing Director, Health and Safety; Ewan Peacock MRICS, Contract Executive, Conflict Avoidance; while fellow Contract Executive Peter Allinson MRICS wraps things up with a workshop on Quantification and Costing.

All of these disciplines are crucial in their own ways to the day-to-day life of a Quantity Surveyor.

Workshop hosts will share their knowledge and insights to ensure delegates are up to speed as they continue on their exciting career journeys with Solomons. Our MSc Apprenticeship Plus programme not only gives our apprentices the chance to secure a Level 6, MSc in Quantity Surveying but also a shot at RICS Chartership. Meanwhile, the APC Accountability Club is a peer-to-peer self-governing, fast-track professional development group that meets in their own time and together supports each other in the preparation for their assessment and highly prized Chartership status.

Workshop host Craig Smallman secured Chartership after support from our in-house APC Accountability Club. He’s now living and breathing the Solomons ethos by paying it forward and supporting the next generation of our high-performing Quantity Surveyors.

“I have always been fortunate in my career to be surrounded by colleagues who were willing to give their time and guidance,” he says.

“I have benefitted massively from this and I’m now doing the same for others. This gives me great satisfaction and also keeps me engaged in the learning process as our industry doesn’t stand still!”

Solomons’ Managing Director, Dominic Doig adds: “I’m getting an immense sense of pride in watching our apprentices grow and develop. They’re working hard to learn new skills, while adapting the ones they’ve come with, to achieve their ambitions quickly on what is a very demanding, challenging and fast-paced programme to Chartership. They remind me of how I was as a young Quantity Surveyor!

“I’m also really enjoying watching how they support each other. For me, that’s a key part of Solomons’ ethos: we support each other in our professional, and personal, growth and development.”

The MSc Apprenticeship Plus programme, APC Accountability Club, along with a whole host of other programmes to help our team members be the best they can be, all fall under Solomons’ Future Skills Academy.