IN COMMON with many other career areas, employers in the auctioneering and estate agency business are increasingly demanding third-level qualifications from prospective employees.
In theory, becoming an auctioneer does not necessarily have to involve study or exams. Anyone can apply to the courts for an auctioneering licence; there is no requirement for a third-level qualification. In practice, most people entering the business in recent years have done a related course.
The popularity of these courses continues to increase, with the entry threshold for the degree in Limerick RTC registering a 50-point increase on last year's level and points for the DIT certificate increasing by 45 points in round one.
There are third-level courses available in the Dublin Institute of Technology, Limerick and Galway regional technical colleges and the University of Ulster, while a number of Post Leaving Certificate colleges offer courses.
Gerry O'Loughlin, head of the department of the built environment in Limerick RTC. says that the job offers a "tremendous opportunity to people who can communicate. They will spend a lot of time look at and valuing property and they must be able to deal with the public.
The four-year degree in Limerick RTC is unusual in that it includes a full year of work experience. O'Loughlin explains that students spend third year on placement, in Ireland or abroad. The college maintains close links with the students and each student in Ireland or Britain is visited by a member of Limerick RTC over the year. When abroad, visits are organised by corresponding colleges.
"The year in industry allows students to get a feel for the job. When they come back they marry their academic and practical experience," O'Loughlin says. Graduates of the course gain full exemptions from the examinations of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in Ireland, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute. These qualifications are accepted worldwide, O'Loughlin notes, so students are not tied into the jobs market here.
DIT Bolton Street offers a two-year certificate in auctioneering, valuation and estate agency and a one-year follow-on diploma. Most students progress from the certificate to the diploma, though some get jobs directly. Of those who proceed to the diploma, most enter the property-economics degree in DIT
Bolton Street or degree programmes in England.
And the study may not end there. Some property-economics graduates may opt for master's programmes. such the master's in urban and rural town planning in UCD. In Galway RTC, which offers a diploma in property management, about two-thirds of last year's graduates proceeded to degree programmes, mainly in the UK.
