PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 1

As a quantity surveyor in construction field, it is very important that we understand our roles and responsibilities for all different stages such as design stages, construction stages and many more. In this semester, we were given this module known as professional practice. This module is to expose us to the practices of a professional Quantity Surveyor, further roles and responsibilities of our career, the importance of QS in contractual relationships, rectifying disputes and advising clients on the matter of cost. The topics covered are role of quantity surveyor, procurement, tendering methods and procedure, tender and contract documentation and so on.

The module’s assessment consists of a mid-term test, seminar, group assignment and also a final examination. In the first project, we are required to carry out a presentation during tutorial session regarding on the topic we were given a week before the seminar. There will be a group of 3 students and each of us will have to do a deep research and present approximately 15 minutes followed by preparing two questions for discussion in class. The next project was to prepare a project report as proposal for procurement arrangements and present to a client which is our lecturer.

For this module, at the beginning I felt it was very challenging for me as I am not very familiar with the basic construction knowledge like procurement methods, tender documents and has no interest in it. This module also requires much presentations in which I am not a person who can present very well. However, under the guidance of Sr Wong, I find that I am slowly catching up with the topics and gained some basic knowledge about it. Although the test or tutorial classes were challenging where we have to answer the questions not only in a simple point but in few levels, I have gained a lot of knowledge like soft skills that can be useful to us in our career other than the topics covered in this module.

I have improved my presentation skills and learnt how to communicate and lead a discussion in class as well as think and answer critically.

In a nutshell, our lecturer had guide and lectured us in an interesting way and shared us his experience such as giving examples of several situations in the construction field  and how to solve the problems. Throughout this subject, we have learnt about the basic construction knowledge as well as qualifications required of a Quantity Surveyor which provides us a life long learning and it will be very useful to us in our working field in the future.