Assessors for Assessment of Professional Competence 2010 This year's Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) will be held in September 2010. You may have already received our invitation to join the assessors' panel for this APC. You are encouraged to become one of the assessors. Your participation will definitely help the candidates and the institute. Please contact Ms Judy Shiu at 2526 3679 if you have not yet returned your reply slip. Pre-qualification Structured Learning Whilst on the subject of APC, I would like to mention about a pilot programme implemented since late last year. Pursuant to the HKIS QSD APC rules and guide ("APC Rules"), "the candidate must undertake a minimum of 24 hours of Pre-Qualification Structured Learning (PQSL) for every six full months after entry to the APC but before taking the Final Assessment for the first time subject to a minimum aggregate of 96 hours". The candidates are expected to gain skills and knowledge which are not always possible to obtain within day-to-day business of the practice. The candidates can fulfill this requirement by attending courses and training sessions, undertaking researches, post-qualification studies etc, which follow the APC Rules, at their choices. The past PQSL submissions from the candidates indicated that there was a 'big' gap between the quality of various courses and studies, which might defeat the intention of the PQSL. In light of this, there were suggestions that the institute should organize a structured learning course for the candidates. The course would ensure that the candidates would gain an appropriate level of skills and knowledge prior to attending the APC. After deliberation, the council then decided last year to implement a pilot scheme for a period of two years. The sub-committee responsible for the pilot scheme is led by our Honorary Treasurer Mr Sunny Chan. The pilot scheme is comprised of 19 seminars with a total of 49 hours. The duration of each seminar ranges from 1.5 to 3 hours. The seminars cover topics related to both pre-contract and post-contract quantity surveying services, which include measurement, cost planning, contract administration, procurement, real estate development, dispute resolution and project management. The speakers of the seminars are well-experienced practitioners and experts in the related topics. By the end of July, we have organized six seminars (see Table 1) and the rate of participation is very encouraging. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage more candidates to join the seminars and to give their feedbacks for future enhancement of the scheme. Besides the candidates, the participation of speakers also contributes significantly to the success of the scheme. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks for the time and efforts of the speakers. If you would like to share your valuable experience with our future successors, please join us as the speakers of the seminars and contact Ms Donna Yu at 2526 3679 for details.