Surveying and property courses offer students a broad and flexible education

But it wasn’t long after the collapse that demand plummeted. Now, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), as well as employers in the building industry, say that there is a major skills shortage and that graduates coming on stream in the next four years will have excellent employment prospects. Is it time for students to look at opportunities in surveying again?

What has changed?

“The numbers dropped too much and now the property and construction sectors have a shortage,” explains Tom Dunne, head of the school of surveying and construction management at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). “This is good news for graduates in the profession now; even with a very conservative estimate where the industry doesn’t boom but merely returns to normal, there will be a shortage of skilled staff, and consequently many jobs, for years to come.”

Last month in its report, the SCSI pointed to a serious shortage of suitably qualified graduates in the construction industry, estimating that there will be at least 1,100 new employment opportunities over the next four years; however, if the economy is particularly strong, this figure could more than double.

Likewise, there is a projected shortfall of 626 vacancies in property surveying and, at a conservative estimate, 290 building surveying jobs with no suitably qualified graduates.

What if there’s another property crash?

Property and construction courses offer students a broad and flexible education with a range of valuable and transferable skills, says Dunne. “After the property crash, property and construction graduates either worked abroad on construction industry jobs or found jobs in other sectors. A graduate from property and construction courses has transferable skills, with a background in finance, economics, project management, construction technology, and law. This broad range of subjects makes them highly employable. Many graduates work outside the construction sector, in sectors including teaching, medicine, sales, banking and finance, and high-tech IT companies – indeed, we have lots of graduates with interesting trajectories in IT. These are vocational courses and graduates are well-placed to compete with people who have arts or business degrees.”

What courses are available in surveying and property?

There are four main areas of study:

• Property and valuers: graduates from these courses generally work in the commercial or residential property sector as agents or managers.
• Quantity surveying: surveyors are responsible for costing and managing a construction job, including legal and contractual issues and often act as project managers.
• Building surveying: this area educates the technologists responsible for inspecting buildings and ensuring compliance with building control, fire and safety regulations.
• Land surveying: a highly technical field, graduates map the built and natural environment to provide accurate spatial data.

Surveying courses are available at Level 6 and 7 as well as Level 8, so students with comparatively low CAO points can start off with a higher certificate or ordinary degree and then move up the ladder.

“This flexibility works well, particularly for those unsure of committing to a four-year degree initially and for mature students who often have many other things to juggle,” says Tomás Murphy, a chartered surveyor and lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). “Students can progress from a three-year ordinary degree to the final year of an honours degree if they have the right marks (a 60 per cent grade point average from year three). This tends to rebalance any issues of lower Leaving Cert points through the higher cert and ordinary degree route while maintaining progression opportunity.”

Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) offers flexible options. Their Level 7 BSc in construction is a three-year programme, in which students follow a common curriculum in years one and two before choosing either the bachelor of science in construction management or the bachelor of science in quantity surveying, in year three. Crucially, suitably qualified graduates may apply for entry to year four of either the BSc (Hons) in construction management or the BSc (Hons) in quantity surveying. Students at IT Carlow can also progress from Level 7 to Level 8 on a range of surveying courses.

Courses are also on offer at Waterford Institute of Technology, Limerick Institute of Technology and Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

Where are the jobs?

A major draw of the surveying profession is the regional spread of jobs, says Zoe O’Connor, director of education at the SCSI. “Students have a strong desire to work in their region and, with work and courses available throughout Ireland, around one third of the jobs are Dublin-based with the rest dispersed nationwide, including 13 per cent in the southwest and 12 per cent in the mideast.”

It should be noted that surveying is a highly mobile profession. Students can work nationally or internationally, but can also be self-employed or work with a small or medium sized enterprise.

According to Kevin Hollingsworth of Omega Surveying Services new building control regulations will create hundreds of job opportunities over the next few years.

“Because builders can no longer self-certify, an independent certifier must sign-off on developments and complete a certificate of compliance to the local authority.”

Only Dundalk IT currently offers a BSc (Hons) course in building surveying. With just 84 places and a conservative estimate the industry will need at least 290 surveyors, graduate employment prospects look strong.

What’s new?

These courses are dynamic and responsive to the needs of both students and industry. At IT Sligo, the final year of the quantity surveying degree can now be studied online over two years, allowing students to undertake it anywhere in the world at their own pace. As languages grow in importance to employers, DIT is now offering German with its quantity surveying degree. And from 2015, students on Letterkenny IT’s quantity surveying course will be eligible to enter the new Level 8 degree.