Aurum
Download

Quantity Surveying Career

The route to becoming a quantity surveyor, from CSEC, CAPE or A-level subjects and an accredited degree to measurement, estimating and contract skills, chartered or professional membership and leading cost control on real projects.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Quantity Surveying Career, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

200

Starter tasks

🧰 Professions & Trades

Quantity Surveying Career

Becoming a quantity surveyor: the degree, measurement and estimating skills, contracts, professional membership and leading cost control on projects.

  1. Testing whether quantity surveying suits you
  2. Subject choices for quantity surveying at CSEC, CAPE and A-level
  3. Comparing degree, diploma and apprenticeship routes into surveying
  4. Funding a quantity surveying degree
  5. Applications to accredited quantity surveying programmes
  6. Shadowing a cost consultant on a live project
  7. Laptop, scale rule and takeoff software setup
  8. Student membership of a surveying body
  9. Weekly measurement practice from real drawings
  10. Personal cost data library of rates and projects
  11. Materials price and inflation watch
  12. Training and experience diary for chartership
  13. Continuing professional development record
  14. Contract, measurement standard and regulation watch
  15. Quarterly reviews with a mentor or counsellor
  16. Membership, indemnity and renewal calendar
  17. Annual career review as a quantity surveyor
  18. Measuring building work to NRM and other standard methods
  19. Taking off quantities from drawings and BIM models
  20. Building up unit rates from labour, plant and materials
  21. Preparing a bill of quantities and tender documents
  22. Cost planning and elemental estimates at early design
  23. Reading JCT, NEC and FIDIC contracts
  24. Interim valuations and payment certificates
  25. Variations, change control and final accounts
  26. Payment notices, adjudication and construction law basics
  27. Life cycle costing and value engineering
  28. Consultant or contractor side quantity surveying
  29. Choosing a route to chartered or professional membership
  30. Choosing a graduate employer and training scheme
  31. Salary benchmarking and offer negotiation
  32. Choosing a sector to specialise in as a surveyor
  33. Deciding on a part-time degree while working
  34. Ethics, gifts and conflicts of interest policy
  35. Final-year dissertation on a construction cost topic
  36. Graduate and trainee job applications
  37. First 90 days as a trainee quantity surveyor
  38. Pricing or reporting on your first tender
  39. Agreeing your first final account
  40. Final assessment for chartered or professional status
  41. Supporting a teenager interested in quantity surveying
  42. Moving into quantity surveying from a trade or site role
  43. Surveying technician and associate membership route
  44. Working abroad as a quantity surveyor
  45. Returning home to practise in the Caribbean
  46. Leading cost management on a major project
  47. Contractual claims, delay analysis and dispute support
  48. Post-disaster reconstruction and insurance rebuild costing
  49. Setting up an independent cost consultancy
  50. Mentoring trainees and counselling assessment candidates

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Testing whether quantity surveying suits you

Quantity surveyors know what a building will cost before it exists and what it really cost once it is finished: they measure drawings, price work, value what contractors have built each month and negotiate over changes. Spending a few hours with people who do the job, and trying a small measurement exercise yourself, shows whether you enjoy that mix of numbers, construction and negotiation before a degree is chosen.

First tasks

  • Write down in ten minutes what you think a quantity surveyor does all month
  • Ask a teacher, relative or local contractor to introduce you to a quantity surveyor
  • Measure one room at home and calculate its floor, wall and skirting quantities
  • Record your decision and the reasons behind it

Subject choices for quantity surveying at CSEC, CAPE and A-level

Most accredited quantity surveying programmes want Mathematics and English, and many look favourably on Economics, Physics or a technical drawing or building subject, but every programme sets its own list. Checking the current entry rules of real target programmes before CSEC, CAPE, A-level or high school subjects are fixed means a missing requirement does not surface in the final year of school.

First tasks

  • List four quantity surveying or construction economics programmes you might apply to
  • Copy each programme's subject and grade requirements into one table
  • Ask your guidance counsellor whether your subject plan meets every requirement
  • Register for the advanced subjects your strictest programme asks for

Comparing degree, diploma and apprenticeship routes into surveying

You can reach quantity surveying through a full-time accredited degree, a diploma or associate degree followed by a top-up year, a degree apprenticeship where an employer pays while you study part-time, or by starting as a trainee estimator with a contractor.

First tasks

  • Find the accredited programme list published by the professional body you are aiming for
  • List two degree options, one diploma or top-up option and one apprenticeship or trainee option
  • Note cost, length and accreditation status for each in one table
  • Choose a route and write down your fallback

Make it yours.

Install Quantity Surveying Career, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.