APC & Final Assessment: How to apply, prepare & submit

Supervisor & Counsellor

These individuals work with candidates on Graduate Route 1 and 2 and the Professional Route to ensure that the candidate is properly trained as a surveyor.  They will meet with the candidate regularly to discuss progress and training and sign off on progress on the journey towards APC.  See the full guide here.

Competency Achievement Planner

This Is required to ensure that each candidate has interpreted the competencies correctly for their chosen pathway. Your Competency Achievement Planner should be developed with guidance from your supervisor and counsellor, depending on your route.

APC Diary

This is to be used to assist you and your supervisor/counsellor in recording your progress and maintaining your Logbook.

APC Logbook

You are required to record your Core and Optional Competencies in your Logbook. Logbook entries should be recorded in days and not hours. You are not required to record your Mandatory Competencies in the Logbook.

APC PQSL Record

You are required to record 48 hours PQSL per year.  See the guide for further info on what counts as PQSL here.

Professional Development Record

You are required to record 48 hours Professional Development/CPD for the previous 12 months.  Graduate Route 1 candidates must submit 48 hours of PQSL each year for 2 years.

APC Record of Progress

Your Record of Progress details your competencies to the required levels and are signed by your supervisor/counsellor.

Supervisor’s Progress Reports

To be completed every three months.

Counsellor’s Progress Reports

To be completed every six months.

Interim Assessment Record

To be completed at the 12 months stage and is submitted with the Final Assessment submission. It comprises a summary, forward plan and supervisor and counsellor comments and signatures. (Please note that this is only applicable to Trainees on Graduate Route 1).

Final Assessment Record

To be completed at the end of the trainee period for Graduate Route 1, 2 and the Professional Route when you have achieved all the required levels of the competencies. It is to be submitted as part of your Final Assessment submission. It comprises a summary and supervisor and counsellor comments and signatures.

Referred Candidate Record

Is required to be submitted by all referred candidates as part of the Final Assessment submission. It comprises a forward plan, summary and supervisor and counsellor comments and signatures.

Sponsor Declaration

All Graduate Route 3 candidates must be sponsored by an SCSI member (Sponsor). The Sponsor will conduct a preliminary interview with the candidate and sign/sponsor the application for Final Assessment if — and only if — s/he is reasonably satisfied that you have met the essential requirements to go forward for assessment.

Resume

Candidates are required to submit an updated version of their resume relating their past 10 years’ experience to the individual competencies of their chosen APC pathway

Change of employer form

If you change employer during the course of your Assessment of Professional Competence, you must notify the Society.

For the safety and wellbeing of our candidates, assessors and staff, all final assessment interviews will be conducted online via Zoom for 2023, unless otherwise advised by the education team.

Specific details will be emailed directly to eligible Final Assessment candidates over the coming weeks confirming details of their online interview.

A range of support videos and guides have been developed for candidates and assessors and are available to view below.  For additional support or queries, please contact us at education@scsi.ie.

Candidate Guidance

• Preparing for a video interview
• Candidates Guide PDF
• Candidates Guide Video

All eligible candidates will be contacted to arrange a live demonstration with SCSI staff, which must be undertaken prior to the interview.

Assessors Guidance

• Assessor & Chair’s Guide PDF
• Assessor & Chair’s Guide Video

All routes — except for the Senior Professional Route — require the submission of the Critical Analysis for Final Assessment interview. Please refer to the Senior Professional Route Guide for requirements with regards to that particular Route.

Senior Professional Route Guidance for Applicants

What is the Critical Analysis?

The Critical Analysis is a particularly important component of the Final Assessment, both in terms of your documentation and interview.

The Critical Analysis makes up for one-third of your 60-minute Final Assessment interview: you will start by giving a 10-minute presentation on your Critical Analysis, and this will be followed by 10 minutes of related questioning.

It is an opportunity for you to demonstrate to assessors your ability to apply the competencies of your APC in your day to day work.

At its simplest, the Critical Analysis is a detailed analysis of a project, or projects, that you have been involved with during the course of your APC, the conclusion of which will include a critical appraisal of the project together with an outline of the lessons you learned from your involvement.

Points to Consider

Assessors often complain that Critical Analysis are often bland narratives — detailing the minutiae of the project but providing very little information regarding the candidate’s input.

The assessors will be assessing you — not the project — and it is important to keep this in mind when approaching the Critical Analysis.

Before you begin to write, think about the objective of the Final Assessment: you want to demonstrate beyond doubt that you have the necessary competencies to practice as a Chartered Surveyor. How are you best going to show this through the medium of your Critical Analysis?

Choice of topic is important — you do not have to select a large or expensive project, especially if your role has been small or peripheral. It is your involvement or role in the team that you should outline, analyse and provide comment on.

The assessors recognise that the project may have been running for some time and you may not have been involved from the start, or your involvement may not have been continuous, or the project may still be ongoing.

The Critical Analysis must give the assessors detailed evidence of your ability to work competently and your ability to apply the core knowledge relevant to your division/specialism. This includes the core and optional competencies and aspects of the mandatory competencies.

You need to not only understand the project itself but the processes you followed and the rationale behind your decision-making. The assessors will ask you about what you did — and why, and possibly why you did not take an alternative approach. They will also ask you about your understanding of wider issues surrounding the project.

Headings to Include

You will need to include the following headings:

• Key issues

You are advised to choose issues that presented a genuine challenge — not an everyday standard occurrence that requires no real problem-solving ability. There is no minimum or maximum in terms of the number of key issues. However, if you select too many issues you will merely skim the surface instead of providing a detailed analysis. Be selective. Think about the depth of competencies involved — they should be Level 3. You may have come across one issue so large that it can form the basis of your Critical Analysis. On the other hand, it may be an issue common across a number of projects.

• Options/Reasons for rejection of certain options

Before proposing a solution, you need to consider all of the options, thus demonstrating your ability to think logically and laterally. You must also demonstrate that you have genuinely considered the options over and above your preferred solution, and give reasons why some solutions may not be feasible. Do not fall into the trap of going down one route only. You need to look at an alternative course of action to cover the key issues in your project. Give reasons for rejecting those options not selected.

• Your proposed solution to the problem(s) and reasons supporting the choice

You must give a detailed account of the reasons supporting your adopted course of action. Relate your reasons to the core and/or optional competencies. Try to widen your thought processes to think about all aspects that can support your decision: customer care, financial, technical, professional, rules of conduct, ethics and conflicts of interest. You do not have to look at each of these if they did not form part of your decision.

• A critical appraisal of the outcome and reflective analysis of the experience gained

Finally, and most importantly, your conclusion must include a critical appraisal of the outcomes, together with your own thoughts and feelings on what you have learned from the experience. This part of your report can make up to a quarter to a third of the total number of words. The critical appraisal is about being introspective. You need to look at the project, consider what has gone well — and identify what did not go well. That way you can plan how you might improve the next time you carry out a similar task. Next stand back from the project and reflect on what you have learned. The assessors will use your Critical Analysis as a starting point to assess your knowledge of the profession, by probing both your understanding of the direct issues raised within your Critical Analysis and those of wider importance to the Chartered Surveyor. Start these processes while you are still writing your Critical Analysis so you are well prepared for the interview. Focus on matters that cross the whole project. Do not try to match every experience to every individual competency.

Points to watch

As with the other Final Assessment documentation, it is expected that the Critical Analysis demonstrates your written communication abilities and professionalism. Make sure that you get others to read over your Critical Analysis for possible typos and grammar — and to ensure that it makes sense and is clear in its execution.

Confidentiality

You must ensure you get your employer’s consent to disclose sensitive details. If you cannot get permission, you may disguise facts that might otherwise make the project identifiable.

References

Extracts from Acts, case law and other sources should not be quoted at length but essential references must be given.

Total word count

You must adhere to the word count (3,000 words excluding appendices) and state it at the end of your Critical Analysis. You can include notes on what you have included in the count. Please note that Critical Analysis submissions exceeding 3,300 words will be rejected and you will not be eligible to undertake the Final Assessment at that time.

Photographs and plans

Include photographs and plans (no larger than A4 size when folded)

Signed and dated

Be signed and dated by you and certified by your supervisor and counsellor.

Finally above all your Critical Analysis must reflect:

• Your written and graphic communication
• Professional standards of organisation and presentation
• Analysis, reflective thought and problem solving
• Learning from experience gained.

Although the Final Assessment is a 2-part process — submission of documentation and a one-hour interview — you should utilise the time in between. The documentation will form the basis of the assessors’ questions, so revisit and review your Logbook, PQSL Record and Interim and Final Assessment Records.

The first 10 minutes of the Final Assessment interview will comprise a presentation on your Critical Analysis followed by 10 minutes’ questioning on the presentation. You are not permitted to use a laptop for the purposes of your presentation, but you may use cue cards. The presentation must be sent to us as soon as possible in the format of PDF only, the panel will have a copy of this while you present.

It is important that you stick to the 10-minute time limit — the chairman of the panel will enforce this strictly.

Some candidates present a summary of the Critical Analysis; others provide an update; and others expand on particular aspects or key issues. There is no right or wrong choice in this regard. However, preparation is key. Know your Critical Analysis inside out — be able to discuss and defend the reasoning behind your actions and choices on the project(s) and be familiar with the wider issues which might affect it.

Get friends and colleagues to read your documentation and pose questions — get yourself used to answering questions relating to your experience and the profession.

Ensure that you have at least one mock interview before the day. The more familiar you are with the process, the more confident you will feel in front of the assessors. If you have any trouble organising a mock interview, contact the Education and Membership Department.

The Final Assessment interview is 60 minutes’ duration:

• Ensure that you arrive 10 minutes before your interview is due to start.
• This is a professional interview, and you are expected to dress and act appropriately.
• After the interview, you can expect to wait 4–6 weeks to receive your result.

• Being referred at Final Assessment is a disappointing experience but there is no reason for you not to pass on re-assessment — so long as you address the reasons for your referral and ensure you are prepared for your second attempt.
• All candidates who are unsuccessful at Final Assessment receive a detailed referral report which explains the reasons for referral and advises on the action you must take in order to be successful at re-assessment.
• In addition, your counsellor will subsequently receive a copy of your referral report.
• Once you receive and read the report, you should arrange to sit down with your counsellor and discuss the panel’s comments. First, ensure that you understand the reasons for your referral and the advice that you are being given. Agree with your counsellor the steps that you will take to address the issues. Complete the forward plan of the Referred Candidate’s Record.
• You can come forward at the next sitting of the Final Assessments — but you must ensure that you have adequately addressed the issues outlined in the referral report and your counsellor must be happy to sign you off as being ready for re-assessment.
• When you are ready to resubmit for Final Assessment, complete the summary of the Referred Candidate’s Record, which will help you checklist all of the issues that you were required to address.
• The main reason that candidates are referred more than once is that they have not taken on board the comments provided in their referral report. The panel at your second Final Assessment will focus on the previous report and will, in the first instance, be seeking — through the documentation and your answers at interview — to ascertain that you have addressed the issues. They will also assess you in general with regard to your competencies, PQSL and Ethics.