Shortage of Land Surveyors

I will use/recommend use of a surveyor for boundary checks during DD depending on the client - more appropriate for blocks which are undefined by obvious markers.

Also used where there may be concerns about building setbacks at side or rear boundaries - rarely an issue on front boundaries except for awnings or occasionally building alignment on retail.

The instructions are buried in Netscape or Webwombat

 

I had not idea the world of Surveying was so complex!

 

It's really a black art.

 

You know the fella who holds that 'surveyors stick" while the other looks through that telescope thingy.

How many days of training are required to learn how to hold that stick? I imagine you can get the "stop/go" ticket in a special bundle training course.

 

The stickologist is also the spotter. The surveyor has a really boring day if his spotter is useless.

If disturbed, he'll tell you where to stick it.

 

I came across this forum and thought I would post my experience.

I am a graduate Land Surveyor (4 year degree from university of Tasmania) with 18 years experience in three states of Australia and internationally in cadastral title surveying and engineering. I have been continuously trying to get licensed in Victoria for 10 years. I now run my own business in Geelong and the board is making it extremely difficult for me to progress further.
If you get on the wrong side of one or two personalities on the surveyors board then it can literally end your career progression towards becoming a licensed surveyor. If you fail a project you might have to wait over a year before you can repeat that project which could set you back 3 years overall. The results of failing a project are can be quite arbitrary and based on personal opinions of how some things should be done down to spelling, grammar and how you bind your project. They take into account who you work for, who your training surveyor is and their audit history and their standing in the industry. A young graduate does not know any of this when they take a job to get licensed and can affect the outcome.
The Red tape commissioner of Victoria Dr Matthew Butlin is currently looking into the licensing process in Victoria and I would invite anyone in the process to contact him and tell him your story. The issue is the time consuming process by which the board sets and assesses projects, which can take 12 months to be assessed. Average license time they say is 4.5 years on top of our 4 year degree. The board sets the standard which is not clear to everyone but expects the industry to take care of training. A lot of what you need to know is not published anywhere and the advice is you need to find the people within the industry who can help.
Licensed surveyors are continually complaining that they don't get paid enough so I can only imagine they are trying to create a shortage of licensed surveyors to push up fees and salaries.
This will probably be the result for a short while but will damage the industry and public perceptions of surveyors in the long run. The SRBV need s to start moving with the times and re vamp the licensing process if it wants to survive.

 

Tobias, thanks for your thoughts. Shame you didnt complete license/registration in any of the other states then brought it over here.

Couldn't agree with you more re license shake up. The surveying taskforce just did a survey of surveyors on a professional training agreement to try and find what pta surveyors think about the process. Hopefully something positive comes out of the process.

You are obviously an experienced surveyor so see the pta from a different viewpoint. For you and older more experienced surveyors it could be more streamlined. For the younger less experienced surveyors perhaps the time taken to complete (average of 4.5 years) is a good thing. RMIT doesnt fully prepare students in re-establishment principles and i felt im learning/learnt it through on the job training. (I have almost finished my PAP and urban - and plan on doing the law project later this year). The length of the process allows the younger surveyors to get more experience. Which is a good thing in my opinion, as there is a huge learning curve.

In relation to the boards attitude towards candidates, im going to plead the fifth.

 

I just looked you up Tobias and wow i am shocked that you havent recieved your license. You seem to have a very broad range of experience and have been involved in a lot of different surveying jobs. I am guessing you are under a pta with your work collegue? Or have you put it on hold? If you dont want to talk about it anymore on a public forum you can PM me. I wouldnt mind meeting up/talking on phone at some stage if your interested. You can give me some pointers on pta.