RICS and CREDAI join hands to promote professional skills in sector

Track2Realty: RICS and CREDAI have joined hands to promote professional skills in real estate and construction. At the 12^th National Convention of CREDAI at Barcelona, a joint initiative called “RICS-CREDAI Skills Development Initiative” was announced to address the education and training needs of professionals engaged in the real estate and construction sector in the country.

This marks a unique partnership, where given the vacuum of specialized education in real estate, RICS (the leading global professional body for built environment) and CREDAI (the leading association of real estate developers in India) have collaborated towards capacity building and skills development in Indian real estate.

RICS – the world’s leading professional body for qualifications and standards in land, property and construction, has been offering specialised educational programs customised for the Indian market, to up-skill working professionals at par with international standards.

Amongst many challenges in Indian real estate, the immense shortage of skilled professionals leads to delay in project deliveries, cost runs and compromised quality.

CREDAI has therefore taken the lead to ensure development firms upgrade the knowledge and skills of their teams and has partnered with RICS to offer specialised RICS educational programs to its members and their staff.

A wide variety of RICS education programs are available under this joint initiative, at foundation or advanced levels, to suit professionals with different skill levels. These programs are offered in specialist areas of – quantity surveying, property valuation, construction project management, building control and inspection, corporate real estate and facilities management and real estate investment and finance.

The duration of these programs ranges from 2 weeks to 6 months across multiple formats – including distance learning, face to face workshops and blending learning format which includes combination of distance learning and face to face workshops.

Some of these programs are in partnership with leading academic institutions such as The College of Estate Management (CEM), Royal Agricultural College (RAC) and Cambridge International Land Institute (CILI).

These courses have been structured primarily for working professionals and are economically priced for people engaged across all levels of the property lifecycle to up-skill and meet the challenges of an ever changing and dynamic sector. Enrolments for these programs begin from 15^th October 2012 and sessions will start from 15^th Jan 2013. Additionally, a number of courses in other disciplines are also scheduled for launch next year.

Commenting on the importance of this initiative the Committee Training Cell, CREDAI says, “CREDAI and its members are at the forefront of building real estate in India. Therefore, we are keen to provide an equal emphasis to our members, as is presently laid on innovation in tools and technology, to also apply to building professional expertise in order to deliver world class projects, which are of the highest quality standards. Recognising that RICS is truly valuable for advancement of Indian real estate towards international standards, we are happy to partner with them to bring global best practices to our members through this joint initiative in education. Being the global accrediting body for over 600 built environment university courses; we strongly believe their programs are unmatched in terms of curriculum and learning outcomes. We are sure that the courses offered under this Skills Development Initiative will enhance skills in order for our members and their teams to better deliver projects that are completed on time and reduced costs.”

The cell comprises of Dharmesh Jain, Vice President, CREDAI and Chairman and Managing Director, Nirmal Lifestyle, Rohit Raj Modi, Governing Council Member CREDAI and Director, Ashiana Homes, A. Balakrishna Hegde, Member, Executive Committee, CREDAI and Managing Director, Chartered Housing, Vijay Mirchandani, Member, Executive Committee, CREDAI Chairman, Mirchandani Group.

Commenting on the partnership, Sachin Sandhir – Managing Director, RICS South Asia said – “Although the real estate and construction sectors are key contributors to economy, there is a complete vacuum of education and training options available for professionals to up-skill. RICS launched professional education programs a while ago and there has been overwhelming participation of professionals from small and big towns who are now studying these courses. This partnership is a huge stepping stone to ensure that a majority of industry now has easy and economical access to education and training options of the highest standards, which in turn will help the sector become more professional and efficient. In this regard, CREDAI’s forward thinking and focussed effort in making sure all their members give due importance to up skilling their professional teams, is to be applauded.”