Quantity Surveyor careers guide & job profile

If a client has a plan for a construction, someone else will build it, not you! It’s your job as a quantity surveyor to check the project is an achievable dream where money, time, people and resources are concerned.

If you’re looking for a construction career with a potentially skyscraper-high salary, plenty of variety and you don’t always need a degree to get started, quantity surveying could be your dream ticket to the land of job satisfaction.

You’ll be keeping an eagle eye on:

• Checking that the needs of the client are genuinely possible
• Quantities and costs
• Time, labour and work contracts
• Legal matters including risks and disputes

6 reasons to do a quantity surveying apprenticeship

What would you like to know about construction careers? Maybe we can help!

• DID YOU KNOW? You can get into construction careers with T Levels!
• What types of construction apprenticeship are there?
• Construction apprenticeships – the basics
• 3 ways into a construction career
• Top skills you need for construction careers
• What can you do with a degree in construction?
• What are the best-paid construction jobs in the UK?
• Construction interview questions – how to prepare

See more

Useful skills to put in your CV:

• Using your initiative
• Having endurance, which is a self-belief skill
• Budgeting skills
• communication skills
• Good planning and organisation skills
• Negotiation and leadership skills
• Digital skills (so you can get to grips with spreadsheets and software to help you with making reports)

Top Skills-boosting Tip

In any area of your life, aim to recognise big problems – that can be broken into smaller chunks – and little problems that might seem like a big deal but can be overcome. Problem-solving skills don’t mean you can solve EVERY problem in study, life and work – but you can always give it your best shot.

How Do You Get These Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School, college and training

Aim to have a strong basic foundation in English and numbers to give you the widest career options, so achieving GCSEs (or their equivalent) in grades 9-4 or A*-C will help your progression.

Useful subjects to study, or take an interest in, include geography and economics, and anything relating to business. They are not must-haves, but can help you see if you have a potential interest in a career where your aim is to help someone build something successfully and safely, using their money wisely to do it.

Vocational Qualifications

You can do an HNC, HND or foundation degree in surveying or construction. On completing your course, you might be able to start working as a surveying technician. Once you’ve got your foot in the door, you can take further qualifications to become a fully qualified quantity surveyor.

T-Levels

T-Levels are a choice for learners after GCSEs alongside apprenticeships and A-levels.

You can do a T-Level in Construction Design, Surveying and Planning. This programme lasts two years and is equivalent to three A-Levels. It combines classroom learning, practical hands-on experience and an industry placement with an employer to give you workplace experience for your career and CV.

BTECs

You can do BTECs from the age of 16 in construction and engineering. They can set you up for full-time degrees, or part-time degrees that give you time to earn a wage and build practical experience while you study.

The BTEC Higher National qualifications in Quantity Surveying are designed to help you get ahead with high quality professional and technical education pathways at Levels 4 and 5, providing students with a clear line of sight to employment or progression to further higher education study.

Apprenticeships

DID YOU KNOW? RICS are keen to avoid creating barriers for young people who might want to get into surveying. Everyone knows that university can be expensive, and not for everyone.

Advanced apprenticeships

You could take an advanced apprenticeship as a surveying technician, which takes about 2 years to do.

With an advanced apprenticeship you can then do a degree apprenticeship as a chartered quantity surveyor (see below).

When you complete your apprenticeship, you can apply to become an associate of RICS.

School leavers can sign up to the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust (CSTT). This organisation helps young people become surveyors by offering apprenticeship schemes that go towards qualifying you for associate membership (AssocRICS).

Degree apprenticeships

Quantity surveying degree apprenticeships are available via a range of employers. They usually take five years to complete. You will typically spend those five years working four days a week and spending one day a week studying in a partner university.

You’ll get a salary during that time, because an apprenticeship is all about paid training.

A quantity surveying degree apprenticeship (level 6) won’t cost you anything either, because all the fees will be paid by the government or your employer.

On completing your degree apprenticeship you’ll end up with a BSc (Hons) degree in Quantity Surveying and can get registered as a Chartered Surveyor with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). And then it’s time to let the big money, big projects and good times roll.

To apply for a quantity surveying degree apprenticeship you will most likely need :

• 3 GCSEs at grades 1-4 (A*-C) including English and Mathematics
• 2 A-levels or the equivalent

University degrees and graduates

The degree route is fairly typical for becoming a quantity surveyor. However, you can also do an apprenticeship or work your way up.

If you’re taking the university route, you’ll need to complete a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited degree course, followed by professional development training.

Example surveying degree subjects include:

• surveying
• construction
• structural or civil engineering
• maths
• geography
• economics
• land studies

To get on a degree course, you’ll usually need 2-3 A-levels or their equivalent. You can also get on a postgraduate course if you have a degree in any subject. There are three popular ways to do this:

• Get accepted on a company’s graduate training scheme
• Study full-time at a RICS-accredited university
• Take a distance learning postgraduate conversion course (if you’re already working in engineering)

With time and experience, you could get promoted into project management or senior quantity surveyor roles. You could be self-employed and work as a consultant for other businesses.

You could also specialise in areas like planning, risk assessment or supply chain management. Finally, if you wanted to you could become a lecturer at a college or university.

Work Experience Tips

Doing work experience in a construction and property environment can help you decide if this is the right career for you. Try looking for work experience in:

• architectural firms
• engineering design consultancies
• construction and property consultancies
• real estate firms and real estate services companies
• property design and management services

Work experience tips

Volunteering Tips

Volunteering always looks good on a quantity surveyor’s CV. You’re picking up valuable life and work skills that fit into any job environment, regardless of what volunteering you do.

Even skills you build like event planning or community management through helping with your local football team or nature volunteering group – which don’t seem immediately relevant to quantity surveying – could show you have the right stuff and make your job application stand out.

Volunteering tips

Knowing a little more about quantity surveying will help you understand what this job is about and help you decide if it’s right for you. The work you will do will have lots of variety, because the world of property and construction is so varied.

In this job you might be working in an office but also spend some time outdoors on construction sites. Normally you’ll wear office work clothes but sometimes you may need to wear protective clothing.

Example daily job responsibilities

• Seeing what a client needs and if their plans can be realistically achieved
• Working out quantities and costs of materials, time and labour
• Negotiating contracts and work schedules
• Giving advice on legal matters, including risks and disputes
• Keeping an eye on sub-contractors and how construction is coming along
• Writing reports on how much is being spent and preparing accounts for payment
• Keeping up with the latest construction methods and materials
• Staying in line with health and safety and building regulations

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles and opportunities with these words in the title:

• Quantity surveying apprenticeships
• Quantity surveying degree apprenticeships
• Trainee quantity surveyor
• Junior quantity surveyor
• Surveying technician
• Surveying assistant

You can also take a look at our database of local opportunities to see if there are any relevant jobs, work placements, or careers events and workshops to help you get started.

These websites might be able to help you find civil engineering experience or a role that’s a good fit for you:

• Go Construct – see more info on how to become a quantity surveyor, and discover other careers in construction.
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.