New President of Chartered Surveyors expresses concern about shortage of graduates for property and construction sector

The new President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, Pauline Daly, has said she is concerned with the gap which is emerging between the demand for graduates by employers in the property and construction sector and the numbers applying for college courses in these areas.

Ms Daly said it is vital that the sector does not experience a skills deficit in the coming years as the outlook for property and construction  improves.

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Ms Daly, who is also European Director of Valuations with JLL, pointed to the findings of a recent employment report published by the SCSI.

“That report found that there is likely to be a 25% shortfall of qualified graduates to fill available posts in the property and construction sector due to very low CAO applications in recent years. This is something that needs to be addressed urgently and the SCSI is working closely with the various education stakeholders to come up with solutions to this important issue” Ms Daly said.

Ms. Daly, who is the first woman President of the SCSI, also echoed recent comments by John Mulcahy, former Head of Asset Management of NAMA, who highlighted the absence of real time data on the property market.

“In order to make decisions that will support a sustainable property market we need access to the right information in real time.  The property market is changing rapidly and retrospective data, while useful, is not sufficient for our key decision makers who must have access to up to date quality information” she concluded.