TRAINING
Training Essential. Valuable. Expensive.
For a one-man band or cast of thousands, it’s a fact of business life. I
t’s always difficult to get the balance in training right. Some training is heavier on theory, while others prefer more practical learning; some is based on the acquisition of specific knowledge, while other programmes focus on
acquiring skills in practice. Phil Bowden, at management and training consultants Bowden TMS, believes the estate agency sector is particularly split when it comes to training. “For small independents, it’s about productivity – training is about adding value to the business. But the corporates want to see agents get some letters after their names, they see qualifications as particularly valuable.” He believes that’s one way corporates try to even the balance and compete against the local strength of smaller agencies. Of course there’s currently no
legal or regulatory requirement for agents to be qualified. The Office of Fair Trading last year decided that there were no grounds for
compulsory regulation of agents. That flies in the face of an increasingly emphatic body of industry opinion which advocates a basic level of training as a compulsory requirement. Dorian Gonsalves, MD at Belvoir,
Standards in estate agency are gradually rising with an increasing number of firms recognising the importance of training.
thinks lettings agents should be regulated and that should require a training commitment and NAEA chief executive Peter Bolton King says training is a real issue – quite apart from other regulatory issues such as registration and protection of client monies. “We are concerned that anybody can just start up with no training, we are one of very few countries where that is the case.” In the USA and France, being a
real estate agent requires degree level qualifications. “We believe that if someone is giving advice on someone’s biggest asset, that person should be qualified, not necessarily at degree level, but certainly qualified to a minimum competency standard.”
Raising standaRds NFoPP’s associations such as NAEA and ARLA require members to take the Technical Award, an NVQ Level 3 qualification, roughly equivalent to A-level (though some exempting qualifications are accepted, such as relevant degrees). The Technical Award covers relevant subjects such as law, building construction, property appraisal, and good business practice. Peter Bolton King says the Technical Award has become the basic entry qualification for the industry, despite the lack of regulatory compulsion; “A lot of firms we deal with insist that staff their staff take the Technical Award.” (Lettings agent Edmund Cude also gives staff a £500 bonus when they pass the ARLA exam.) On the sales side, Peter believes
standards are gradually rising. He points at the Property Ombudsman’s 2010 report, in which ombudsman Christopher Hamer stated that the fall in the average compensation
Compliance training is vital, you need to do it for your own defence.’
40 SEPTEMBER 2011 PROPERTYdrum
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