Trainees meet new mentors

Our five new trainees met their mentors this week for the first time as they started their AssocRICS journey at e.surv Chartered Surveyors.

AssocRICS (Associate, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is the qualification all our surveyors must achieve before they can practice as an operational surveyor. We make three intakes of trainees every year, with each of them benefitting from the mentoring programme as part of their development.

Each trainee in our latest cohort was assigned a ‘primary’ mentor who will guide them over the course of the next 12 months. Where possible, they will also be supported by a secondary mentor as they progress through their AssocRICS.

Andy McIvor, who manages the training for e.surv, explained: “Our trainees will typically assist their mentors, operational surveyors out in the field, for four days in every week. This involves shadowing the surveyors, getting up the ladders and experiencing the practical side of the job.

“During the course of their development we seek to introduce a secondary mentor. This gives them the benefit of two surveyors, enabling them to develop a broader understanding of valuation principles, inspection methodology and building pathology.”

The mentors themselves are carefully chosen from areas across the UK. They are trained by e.surv and become part of an ongoing 360 degree assessment policy.

Andy explained: “Our 360 degree assessment policy ensures that all parties involved in the development of our future surveyors are in constant communication, resulting in a smooth transition from trainee to operational surveyor.

“Some of the greatest skills required of our mentors are patience and an enthusiasm to share the incredible wealth of knowledge they have developed over many years in the field. They are still working as an operational surveyor, but also have someone along with them that they want to train, which proves to be a challenging but rewarding experience for them.”

• Our new starters are Neil Daly, Conor Sykes, Simon Stuttard, Gillian Grace and Nicola Stokley, mentored by Parisima Sayfimehr, Christopher Holdroyd, Sam Wadsworth, Mark Ashton, Richard Godwin and Nicholas Hayward.