Sean Tompkins, Chief Executive RICS launches a new campaign to attract more talent to a rapidly changing industry.

Sean Tompkins, Chief Executive RICS

Fancy building the 2022 world cup stadium in Qatar? Or advising the Bank of England on subsidies for first time buyers? Perhaps being part of the Disaster Emergency Committee tasked with rebuilding Haiti following the earthquake? Or working with the United Nations to ensure global food security?

The scale of these world challenges mean we need the brightest and the best to work in the UK and overseas and to do that means tapping into talent from diverse backgrounds and skillsets across the full breadth of the UK workforce.

As the CEO of the world’s largest professional body, which sets and enforces standards across land, property, infrastructure and construction, Sean is passionate about diversity in all its forms. He is launching ‘Surveying the Future’, a new campaign to attract more talent to this rapidly changing industry.

“Organisations within the industry recognise that greater diversity of thought is likely to be their biggest business advantage in the future. One of the problems is that influencers, such as teachers, parents and careers advisors are not aware of the broad range of surveying careers.”

President of RICS, Louise Brooke-Smith, firmly believes that one of the greatest challenges is the leadership deficit, particularly in a number of areas where skills and collaborative leadership styles excel:

“Encouraging people to do better and achieve more can be helped significantly by making success visible, and that’s relevant across all career paths. Our campaign will really drive through change in this area and highlight a broad diversity of talented professionals who are shaping the world we live in.”

Find your profession in the industry, visit: www.rics.org/uk/the-profession and follow us on Twitter: #SurveyingtheFuture

Name: Holly Davis

Age: 27

Position: Project Surveyor (Chartered Quantity Surveyor)

Employer: AECOM

Based: Norwich

While at school I had always been interested in business studies and accounting, but realised that being a quantity surveyor would mean that I could not only apply my maths skills in a practical way, but also contribute to something tangible and long-lasting – something that really appealed.

Following my A-levels, I was fortunate enough to be accepted onto a trainee scheme run by AECOM, a global infrastructure and support services firm with over 45,000 worldwide staff and a number of UK offices, including Norwich. The format of the scheme meant I worked full time, but attended University on day release, sponsored by the company. After graduation, they then supported me through my Assessment of Professional Competence to become chartered by the RICS. I’m now studying for an MBA on a distance learning basis whilst working full time.

Now as a qualified construction specialist I am right in the middle of a technical and practical skillset. But I also believe that surveying has allowed me to develop broader professional skills, such as mentoring and leadership, particularly in working with graduates and trainees.

There are huge opportunities for men and women in construction; from all sorts of backgrounds to get involved, and use their diverse experiences to help them deliver the huge variety of projects. At AECOM we’ve even launched a new campaign called ‘This is Women’s Work’, which aims to show that there are no barriers to working in the industry.

Being a surveyor is a little like being able to speak another language. It’s fascinating to be able to read the construction environment around you and know why a building is built in the way it is. I also like the fact that every day is different. The industry is changing all the time particularly with the adoption of new technologies, and so there’s huge potential for young, computer literate people, to come into the industry as there’s a real need for technology skills.