QUANTITY SURVEYING is a superb career for men and women who have the desire to involve themselves in the exciting world of construction and development. In a highly pressurized world of spiraling costs and large scale development, the role of the quantity surveyor is currently more vital than when the profession was originally established in England in 1785. Quantity Surveyors work on projects ranging from office blocks, schools, hospitals, factories to bridges, railways, oil and mining development, shipbuilding and large process engineering works such as refineries. Anywhere that major construction work is carried out. The Quantity Surveyor, also known as a Construction Economist, or Cost Manger, is one of a team of professional advisors to the construction industry.

As advisers they estimate and monitor construction costs, from the feasibility stage of a project through to the completion of the construction period. After construction they may be involved with tax depreciation schedules, replacement cost estimation for insurance purposes and, if necessary, mediation and arbitration. Quantity surveyors are employed predominantly on major building and construction projects as consultants to the owner, in both the public and private sectors. They may also work as academics in the building and construction disciplines and in financial institutions, with developers and as project managers. Quantity Surveyors work closely with architects, financiers, engineers, contractors, suppliers, project owners, accountants, insurance underwriters, solicitors and Courts and with all levels of government authorities.

Quantity surveyors get their name from the Bill of Quantities, a document which itemizes the quantities of materials and labour in a construction project. This is measured from design drawings, to be used by the contractors for tendering and for progress payments, for variations, changes and ultimately for statistics, taxation and valuation.