What happened when CBRE’s UK managing director Ciaran Bird went back to the floor and left the reins of the business in the hands of apprentice Jessica Austen?
Jessica Austen
“In September 2015, I entered the property industry as an apprentice surveyor and I have not looked back since.
“The opportunities I have been given are ones that I could never have imagined a 19-year-old would have had. And the biggest was yet to come – trading places with CBRE UK managing director Ciaran Bird.
“I had been selected to compete in the Brathay Apprentice Challenge as part of the RICS team. This is a national initiative to promote apprenticeships across all industries and sectors. I felt honoured to have been selected to be part of a great team and to promote apprenticeships, a scheme I feel very passionately about.
“Sitting at Ciaran’s desk, I thought and planned exactly how I would chair the diversity discussion at the firm’s management board meeting, realising that this could be a pivotal moment in my CBRE journey.
“After introducing myself to the board and with the ears of some of the company’s most senior executives in one room, I spoke about diversity and apprenticeships and why we should grow our award-winning scheme in order to attract the freshest talent to the business and reap the rewards of doing so.
“I also spoke about the Apprenticeship Levy, a government initiative encouraging large companies to employ apprentices. This is of huge importance to CBRE and many other organisations. I explained to the management board how they can claim this money back to pay for the funding and training of apprentices within the business – obviously a huge incentive.
“Since chairing the meeting, I have had amazing feedback from some of the people in the room that day, which has filled me with confidence.”
Ciaran Bird
“There’s a movie that sticks in my mind, where a mother and daughter unwittingly swap roles. The mother finds herself back at school answering questions on Hamlet while her daughter acts as a stand-in psychologist. The results are amusing, terrifying, but ultimately enlightening and, as I sat at my desk, I wondered just what my 19-year-old protégée might have in store for me.
“I entered the property industry via an apprenticeship at the age of 16. A former professional rugby player for London Irish, I progressed through the ranks of Malcolm Dalgleish’s highly successful retail business under his careful and stoic guidance.
“To me, this is why investment in the next generation is crucial, why I am fully behind CBRE’s pioneering initiative to offer young people an accredited route to becoming a fully qualified chartered surveyor, and why I agreed to trade places with Jessica.
“At 9am, I find myself on the fourth floor of Henrietta House [CBRE’s London HQ] in the firm’s corporate occupier services team.
“Jessica has left notes for me and there is not a photocopying or data entry task in sight. Instead, there is a full action plan for one of our banking clients, following the disposal of one of its prime central London sites.
“I must first pull up the client files and lease details. I search for my PA before realising I am out on my own.
“While this hasn’t been my day job for some years, I turn my attention to undertaking a full review of the lease and work steadily through the next couple of hours, hitting the phones to complete Jessica’s comprehensive instruction to find a new tenant for the property. She has put me through my paces.
“I think about the task I have left for Jessica. Peering through the window of my office, I realise I needn’t have worried there. With poise and gravitas beyond her years, she has them eating out of her hand, leaving them in no doubt as to her ability. I make a mental note to see our next-generation recruitment and development adviser ASAP. For our business to continue to thrive, we will need more like Jess.”
CBRE Apprenticeship programme
The CBRE Apprenticeship programme was launched in 2013 and offers 16- to 24-year-olds the opportunity to study and work towards becoming fully qualified chartered surveyors. Two of CBRE’s apprentices were selected by the RICS to represent the surveying industry in a team of nine put together for the Brathay Apprentice Challenge – a search for the apprentice team of the year, supported by the National Apprenticeship Service. To win the challenge, teams undertake a series of work-related tasks to develop new skills and showcase their employer by engaging with young people and businesses to promote the benefits of apprenticeships.
• Are you going back to the floor to experience life in the role of a client or employee? Why not tell us about it? Email samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
