The newly elected President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said one of the main priorities of her presidency will be to address the skills shortages within the surveying industry in the coming years.
Mullingar-native Claire Solon, a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor, has said that the shortfall of qualified graduates coming into the profession could severely threaten the country’s ability to address the current housing supply crisis as well as our infrastructural deficit.
“During my term as President of the SCSI, I will be looking at several ways in which we can combat this shortage to get graduates into the workforce faster such as on the job training programmes as well as accelerating routes for those interested in becoming surveyors. We’re rolling out our CAO change of mind media campaign to encourage students to choose construction and property courses. We’re working with accredited colleges and in-house to develop part-time and modular programmes which enable people to work while studying or to convert graduates from other areas like business or economics into the property and construction sector.”
Ms Solon pointed out that women only account for one fifth of the Society’s membership and that needed to change.
“When speaking with female graduates, they often say that they were unaware of the vast array of professions that exist within the surveying umbrella. So I believe communication is key here, to really highlight the variety of careers within surveying in advance of students filling out their CAO forms”.
As well as taking up her role as President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland – the SCSI is the professional body which represents more than 5,000 Chartered Surveyors working and practicing in Ireland – Claire Solon was also recently appointed to Head of Property at Friends First with responsibility for over €500m of property assets.
Claire is a Fellow of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, and a Fellow with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She holds a first class honours degree in Property Economics and has lectured extensively on valuation methodology on both degree and master’s courses for DIT and SCSI.
Originally from Mullingar, Claire has lived on the Northside of Dublin with her partner for the last fourteen years. She has two children, Cillian, who is four and Cadhla, who is almost two.
