Blog – Exchange and learn QS practices in Scotland

31 March 2017

My Quest Experience

Harvest Kong Qiushuo went on a Quest experience from Hong Kong to Glasgow, UK. As a member of QS Team in Hong Kong, I was pleased to join the QUEST Program in Glasgow Office, United Kingdom, from 1 December to 12 December 2016. This journey provided me an experience to learn from our excellent colleagues in UK, to broaden and deepen my professional knowledge and share my knowledge with them, as well as an opportunity to enjoy different culture and connect with Arcadians.

How to start

Every Arcadian, regardless his/her business lines, could apply for the QUEST program and below is my application experience.

Firstly, I created a Quest Account on the Quest website with the input of some information required which means that I have entered the Quest Community. Then, I looked in the Quest Community and found my host office by myself. Same professional background, vacancy in the host office, active intention expression and smooth communication with any potential host colleague are all the key factors for a successful application. After finding the host office, I submitted my application to the host’s management team. As the requests are different among different offices, a business proposal or a Skype interview may be needed in the application stage. In my experience, a working proposal and a well-developed business case are required to submit for review. With the online submission of the proposal, emails were automatically sent from the host manager to your home manager (e.g. line manager) regarding the QUEST approval. Finally, the approval was sent to our headquarters and Lovinklaan Foundation. It did not take long before my QUEST application was approved.

What I learnt and shared

The QUEST Program in Glasgow Office offered me a valuable opportunity to broaden, gain and share the professional knowledge including: Broadening my professional horizon in procurement in public sector, learning the effective and efficient model and methodology applied in tender analysis and sharing the well-working project financial statement system.

During the QUEST, I participated in the QS services for Aberdeenshire Council (Office Building) Redevelopment which is a project in public sector. I carried out the pre-qualification under ESPD (Scotland) and tendering following OJEU process (Competitive Dialogue) of some packages with my host colleague and drafted the Scottish tender report which is very presentable and visualisable with the team. A briefing on the project financial statement system applied in my project was given by me and a systematical comparative study was taken by us.

What was fun

Without doubt, the QUEST Program was not only about professional knowledge exchange, having fun in the city where the host office is located is also an important part of the experience. Visit to the historical local beer factory, experiencing Scottish after-work drinking, joining the team Snooker Competition and going travel to Edinburg which is close to Glasgow made my Quest colorful and unforgettable. Every colleague there was very friendly and enthused to guide me to embrace the local culture.

The Quest Program did not only help me to have a knowledge exchange and learn QS practices in UK, but also supported me to expend my network and connect we Arcadians from Scotland and Hong Kong together. Work as a whole, it is the Arcadis way that creates the business benefits for us and our clients.  I really enjoyed the journey and wish you have a plan on it too! Thank you Lovinklaan for this unique experience!

Quest is an international transfer program which connects Arcadians from all over the world. Quest is sponsored by the Lovinklaan Foundation

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