The relevance of professional institutions to students and early career practitioners in the property and construction industries within Australia

The role of professional institutions and the transition from student membership to full professional membership among real estate and construction students in Australia is examined. Students’ perceptions of professional qualifications and institution membership is explored to show that graduates seek networking and career advancement opportunities over professional training and development opportunities. The expectation of many young practitioners is that they will work outside Australia during their career and this has significant implications for the future policy development of professional bodies. The paper provides a valuable insight into the aspirations of young professionals and goes some way to identifying the reasons for the low level of transition from student membership to full membership of the national and international professional bodies.