RICSbooks.com stocks all the latest and essential best practice publications, so if you are studying to pass your APC or at university, this site provides the most up-to-date books to help you get qualified. Some of the RICS publications offer student discounts, such as the SMM7 – Standard Method of Measurement, SMM7: Explained and Illustrated, Surveying Buildings and the Code of Procedure for the Measurement of Building Work SMM7 Measurement Code Revised 1998.

To help you through your studies, here’s a list of some of the best practice publications:

• APC 2010-11: Your Practical Guide To Success
• Residential Building Defects
• Surveying Buildings
• Valuation Calculations – 101 worked examples
• A Valuer’s Guide to the Red Book
• Parry’s Valuation & Investment Tables
• Cracking and Building Movement
• Diagnosing Damp
• Remedying Damp

To get your 10% voucher code and see a complete list of student texts visit http://www.ricsbooks.com/students.

Helen feels that it is important to look her best everyday, as she is the retail/leasing director for Grosvenor in Mayfair and Belgravia. “My job at Grosvenor requires me to look smart and presentable and fairly ‘fashion forward’. I’m representing the Grosvenor brand at all times and therefore need to make the extra effort” Helen comments.

Helen was chosen for the campaign after being called one Friday night by Show Media, the Marketing Company behind the Campaign. “I originally said ‘no’ thinking that at 36 I was way to old to be doing something as crazy as modeling!” But Helen decided to take the plunge and she has no regrets “the whole experience was amazing. From having you’re hair and make up done to hanging off a ladder for what seemed like hours. Having lots of people looking at you the whole time was quite unnerving!” she says.

Helen decided to become a Chartered surveyor after her father suggested that she should follow this path. At the young age of 19 Helen purchased a dilapidated house in Cambridge, which she let to her university friends. “That really ‘fueled the fire’ to go into property!” she comments. This prompted her to take a Masters degree at City University London.

After her shoot Helen would love to model again. She found that her colleagues were surprised but also very supportive and proud.

For more information visit www.lkbennett.com/lifeistheoccasion_about?_s_icmp=lito

Well, here we are at the start of another academic year…Our new undergraduates have confirmed their places and we are looking forward to meeting them all in Freshers’ Week. If you are in the sixth form and thinking about studying with us why not come along to the University Open Day on 2 October? You’ll have the chance to look round our beautiful campus, admire our state of the art building and chat to staff and students about what Real Estate & Planning can offer you. No need to book; just come along….more details on the University of Reading website.

Our Postgraduate Real Estate courses are now full and we are not accepting any more people on the waiting list but have you considered applying for October 2011? We are re-vamping our full time courses and will be offering a new MSc Real Estate Finance which will be taught jointly with the ICMA Centre, which is also part of the Henley Business School and enjoys an international reputation for postgraduate education for the financial markets. More details will be available shortly on our website…and, of course, I’ll blog about it!

There are still just a few places available on our postgraduate Planning courses, but get your applications in soon…

I mentioned our beautiful campus above and the photo shows a wild flower garden that has been planted at the rear of our building.

I am now greatly looking forward to starting to pitch for commissions and designing new and exciting products to meet the challenges of the industry – obviously whilst still maintaining our existing products and ensuring upmost quality. I also seem to be involved in many internal and external meetings with the recent highlights being a trip into London to meet with the head of technical services at Legal & General and entertaining the chief executive of Rider Levett Bucknal.

Now, high on my agenda, and something I am very excited about, is our new online sustainability training course that we have developed as the foundation level of the UK Green Building Council’s STEP programme (Sustainability Training & Education Programme). This has been in production during my settling in period at the College and I must say is both thought provoking and delivered in a highly engaging interactive format that incorporates very modern IT bells and whistles.

This course is completed online and comprises a very flexible 8 hour study programme that you can undertake, as and when you have the time, within a two week period. This CPD-accredited training programme will introduce the fundamentals of sustainability to anyone involved in the built environment and has been designed for people from the ‘post room to the boardroom’ to coin a phrase.

Having been through the pilot of this training course myself (and having the certificate to prove it!) I can thoroughly recommend it as a valuable insight into the all-encompassing world of sustainability. Take a peek for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpi3nzswCu8

I am looking forward to the official launch on the 6^th September at Westminster and meeting the leading-lights within the property and political spectrum, including Rt Hon. Nick Raynsford MP, who are lending their support.

Watch this space for updates post-launch.

If you’re in the first 12 months of your APC, or preparing for your critical analysis or final assessment, the Academy has four APC training courses which will answer your questions and clarify anything confusing. You’ll also find a dedicated APC area, featuring additional resources and materials. Soft skills courses on offer include Interview Techniques and Presentation Skills.

Since all learning takes place online, you can study in your own time and at your own pace. Visit the Online Academy now to find out more and to register on a course.

All RICS Training courses are also available as face-to-face courses. Visit the Training homepage to view the full range of courses.

Following a short spell working in a private surveying practice in the City, Anil moved to the London Borough of Enfield where he worked while studying part-time for his five-year building surveying degree at London South Bank University.  Within a week of gaining a first class honours degree, Anil embarked on the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC), the practical training and experience which, when combined with academic qualifications, leads to RICS membership.

But another obstacle was to come Anil’s way months after starting his APC. Tragedy struck when sadly Anil’s mother passed away and he had to return to Mauritius to deal with family matters. Despite this setback, Anil returned to London and passed the final assessment of the RICS APC at the first attempt to become a fully-fledged Chartered Building Surveyor.

Anil says, “Passing the APC was a superb feeling as it marked the culmination of years of sheer hard work and determination. Words can’t express how delighted I am to be a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which I view as the mark of excellence and professionalism in the property and construction industry worldwide. It has been a long, tough journey, but so worthwhile.

“Throughout my studies I have always spread my passion for chartered surveying to my fellow colleagues and students and have enjoyed advising them on the right route for an RICS-accredited course or surveying discipline.”  Anil has just taken up a new position as a senior building surveyor with NPS Group and is going to study for a part-time masters in project management. After gaining more professional experience, he is considering returning to Mauritius as the island’s only Chartered Building Surveyor.

The project includes creating 20 hectares of green space in central Athens along with developing the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC). It is hoped that once completed the SNFCC will provide employment for up to 1,000 people.

In order to develop such a unique and fascinating site, Faithful+Gould is working with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and the award-winning architect Renzo Piano. The project will incorporate state-of-the-art facilities, which will fit in with the cultural heritage. The distinctive project will also be environmentally sustainable: the roof design includes an energy canopy of nearly 10,000m2 of interconnected photovoltaic cell panels. This is expected to produce up to 1.4MWp.

The British firm, which has offices around the world, will have a team of 15 employees who are dedicated to this project and will provide project and cost management and risk and value management. The development of the SNFCC has recently been approved and is expected to be completed in 2015.

For more information, visit www.fgould.com

Hello, I’m Cathy Hughes and I am the Admissions Tutor for the School of Real Estate & Planning at Reading.

The week of A level results is always a tense time for us at the university as well as our applicants.  We have no idea in advance how it is going to go. It could be that everyone will achieve their grades and then we will have a full house but on the other hand we could have my nightmare scenario where the results are poor and we end up with no-one!  

Fortunately, my nightmare has never come true and this year is no exception which leads me to post the following message to our incoming students:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  I hope you can all now relax for the rest of the summer and I look forward to meeting you for Freshers Week in October.

As mentioned before, as of Monday I’ve taken the helm of the Colleges training department CEM-T and my first soiree was with the CEO of the British Institute of Facilities Management; this was after a harrowing motorcycle journey around the North Circular – still nothing ventured nothing gained! Other appointments this week have been with GE Real Estate Environmental Counsel and the Director General of the Institution of Civil Engineers. I have even managed to undertake a half days training on Internationalising the Curriculum, which was very enlightening. A number of internal meetings seemed to be the theme for the week culminating into looking at the plan for the next 5 years at the College.

Notwithstanding the above, one of the highlights of the week was participating in a presentation to some of our College of Estate Management Honorary Fellows in Piccadilly, London. These are some very influential industry figures at the top level of their professions and the types I would normally go and sit in the audience listening to their presentations; so I felt quite pressured. However, the event went well and the feedback was very positive, so I felt pretty good about the evening.

The university campus as you can imagine is fairly empty of students here at Reading but life at the College is 365 days a year with our students being located within over 105 countries around the world, so we remain very busy.

Regards

Gary

A totally different ball game to the typical housing development and office block, the project perfectly highlights the sheer range of buildings that surveyors can be involved in.

It is the first prison to be procured under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for a number of years, and the £415million prison is being built to category B standards and designed to achieve BREEAM excellent rating. It is due to open early in 2012.

Geoff Lewis, associate director at Faithful+Gould and project manager for Belmarsh West Prison said: “This is an exciting project to be involved in that further demonstrates our strengths in both the prison sector and in managing PFI projects, which by their very nature require a certain set of skills and experience. We are proud to have worked with the Ministry of Justice National Offender Management Service to deliver a purpose built, modern prison that utilises previously unusable brownfield land.”

For further information, visit www.fgould.com