In our February update we announce our first networking event for 2023 which will be hosted by our community committee in London and preceded by a CPD and expert speaker webinar. We also give an update on our first face-to-face facilitated workshop which will bring together representatives from across the land referencing world to explore how we can constructively collaborate on the future of our services. We also share news on the land referencer apprenticeship from our careers committee and our Become a Professional Geographer careers marketing campaign. It's a biggie - grab a cup of tea and read on...
Community
Our community committee are arranging our 2023 events and our first networking event is listed below. It's free for members - just sign in to your SoLR account to book your ticket. We try to precede our networking events with a CPD expert speaker webinar, and details of this are also found below. We hope you can make both!
Last year you voted Shelter as our adopted charity and we're asking you to vote again for this year. The short list is Refuge, Shelter, Stand With Us Fund and The Ocean Cleanup. Please click below to vote (only takes a second).
Our March Events
CPD Expert Speaker Webinar
FREE for members
Fri, 24 Mar | 12:30
MS Teams
Join this CPD expert speaker event where Ashley Parry Jones explores the concept of land referencers as the 'caring faces of compulsory purchase'
SoLR Networking - London
FREE for members
Fri, 24 Mar | 6:00 pm | SAMA Bankside
The first of our 2023 networking events is kicking off at SAMA Bankside, London! Free - Open to all members - Suitable for all levels - Limited Free Drinks. This is a ticketed event with limited spaces.
Planning on becoming chartered? Interested in free CPD?
See all our events for signposted free webinars with the Royal Geographical Society, including their new Professional Insights series which we are supporting.
Industry
In early Dec, we had our first industry (virtual) workshop to start discussing how we can constructively collaborate on the future of our services, profile and purpose. This was a really engaging session with lots of initial ideas captured which will be taken forward to a professionally facilitated face-to-face workshop in London on 28 Mar, hosted by Winckworth Sherwood and followed by dinner.
This workshop will be led by Jim Harvey, an experienced facilitator who has helped FTSE 100 companies, government departments and public bodies to maximise their potential and deliver outstanding results.
We currently have representatives confirmed from Aecom, Ardent Management, Bruton Knowles, Dalcour Maclaren, Fisher German, HS2, Jacobs, Land Assembly Services, Mott MacDonald, Savills, SoLR, Terraquest, Winckworth Sherwood and WSP.
If your organisation is not yet represented, and you would like to participate, please contact thanasis.skentos@aecom.com.
Careers
On 14 Feb, we showed our love for our first apprentice cohort and their amazing and ever enthusiastic lecturer Yinka, at a get together hosted by WSP in Birmingham followed by a mini bowling tournament. It was a pleasure to spend time with many of the first cohort of Land Referencer apprentices, who started in September 2022, and to get feedback on their experiences to date, working with employers and at college. Thanks to Mike Weaver for organising and WSP hosting. Vacancies for our September 2023 cohort are live with AECOM, Dalcour Maclaren, HS2, Mott MacDonald and TerraQuest.
We have launched our Become a Professional Geographer careers marketing campaign for 2023. You can download our poster by clicking on the left.
For apprenticeships, we have refreshed the content our our website with information to support employers, help candidates make the right choice and advertise vacancies. and visit our apprenticeship pages below. Help us spread the word!
Careers Events
Our careers committee is coordinating attendance at various careers and skills events, to promote land referencing to future colleagues as well as raising our profile with other attending organisations and those we will work alongside in the future.
Gospel Oak School, Tipton - 31st January
Terry Arthur School, Sutton Coldfield - 28th February
Stourport High School - 14th March
If you can support these events or know of others we could include, please contact victoria.sherwin@dalcourmaclaren.com.
SoLR accepted as a professional body
In Jan we were pleased to be accepted onto the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) register of professional and employer led bodies. Whilst this is a mouthful, it is welcome formal recognition of SoLR by a executive non-departmental public body. The directory of professional and employer-led bodies supports IfATE's commitment to maintain employer voice and industry input in the evaluation of end-point assessments. Partnerships with industry recognised professional organisations gives evaluation of the quality of apprenticeship assessment added credibility, and recognition as a genuine test of occupational competence.
NCATI Consultation
On 13 Feb, the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI) announced the start of a 6 week consultation process to consider a number of future options for the college, and communicated this to all stakeholders including apprentices, employers and SoLR. We have met with the college's vice principal who has offered reassurance on the future of the Land Referencer Apprenticeship, both for the duration of the current cohort and for future cohorts, regardless of the future direction of the college. The consultation will run from Monday 13 February 2023 and will finish on Thursday 30 March 2023. SoLR will issuing a response as part of this consultation.
And finally...
As we're in our second full year as a society, many membership subscriptions will be expiring. Check if yours is due for renewal within your SoLR account here. We've kept our prices low (£50 for UK resident/ £25 for non-resident), and we are entirely reliant on subs to run the society. We're aware that not all of our automated reminders manage to get past the more cautious spam filters.