‘Refurbish, refurbish, refurbish’: recruiting apprentices for carbon-reduction projects
Posted on: 14 May, 2025
“I try to help as many people get onto apprenticeships as possible because I think it’s a brilliant way to progress in your career.”
Name: Philippa Brown
Company: Exigere
Philippa Brown works at Exigere, a specialist consultancy that has grown from 40 to 85 employees since the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm intends to expand further, and Philippa is in charge of recruiting assistant surveyors and apprentices.
Exigere currently has nine apprentices enrolled on quantity surveying pathways at UCEM, and as a qualified quantity surveyor herself, Philippa has an active role in supervising two of them:
“We sit down quarterly with their Apprenticeship Outcome Officers, provided via UCEM, and give support as the business and commit to what their targets are for their next quarter.”
The importance of outreach
Exigere may be a relatively small firm, but Philippa is part of a big drive to spread awareness of routes into quantity surveying.
The firm is part of the Islington 100, volunteering hours to Islington Council. Through this initiative, they visit local schools and provide CV writing support to people interested in entering the sector. Exigere also supports neighbouring Hackney Council through the Hackney New Homes programme, helping deliver 500 new social rent homes. “As part of that we’re taking an apprentice per year through Hackney Council and offering work experience”, Philippa explains.
While much of this work is to promote the industry in general, Philippa has observed a rise in popularity of apprenticeships in particular:
“I think what we’re seeing in quantity surveying is that we’re getting more and more applicants through an apprenticeship route rather than doing full-time uni. I think some of that push will be to do with fees, but it’s also the quickest route to Chartered Surveyor and we’re a chartered RICS firm. We’re definitely starting to see more traction through the apprentice route.”
A focus on refurbishment
Philippa credits the firm’s fast growth to a renewed focus on office refurbishment:
“I think what’s helped us grow over the years is that we have specialised in refurbishment and in London especially clients are conscious of their carbon footprint and they’re moving towards a retrofit-first approach. So instead of ‘knock it down and start again’, it’s ‘refurbish, refurbish, refurbish’.
Philippa points out that the firm’s apprentices are able to study sustainability modules at UCEM, which helps them prepare for real-world projects where carbon emissions are a key client concern:
“I know they cover carbon reduction and the three pillars of sustainability at uni, so it’s great to be able to support their knowledge base – it’s something that comes up on day one of all of our projects!”
Working with UCEM
Philippa says UCEM’s “support of us as a business is really good”, with a responsive team who “are always there to answer questions.” Without the large HR departments of some of the bigger firms, Exigere also benefits from how “straightforward” UCEM’s application and onboarding processes are.
When it comes to the learning itself, Philippa says:
“The VLE works well and we found the support from the uni to the candidates has been good. You always worry with online learning that if a student’s been given something they don’t understand, then can they contact someone? But the contact is great. Whenever anyone’s asked for support, the uni has always been incredibly helpful. The relationship is working well.”
