Scholarship / Pursuing a Master's degree in Real Estate Management in the UK; study choice essay [2]

Study in the UK

Dear members,
Please find below my Study in the UK essay for Chevening scholarship. Any feedback will be welcomed with two hands!

After graduating with BSc. Land Economics in 2013, I decided to pursue a career in property and facilities management. Having worked as an Estates Manager for a major shopping center, I realized that there is need for Property and Facilities Managers to focus on both operational and strategic aspects of managing properties. In the course of my work I appreciated the fact that I was not doing well when it came to strategic facilities management which greatly affected operations at the shopping center that I was managing.

In my current role as a Facilities Officer for a NGO which focuses in driving the community health agenda, am engaged in designing both strategic and operational plans for making sure that all premises serve the needs of the community and the organization in terms of functionality and statutory compliance. As in the previous working environment, still strategic facilities and property management came out strongly as my weakness. I therefore desire to pursue a Master's degree in Real Estate Management that will equip me with skills and competences to effectively design and implement strategies that will lead to sustainable maintenance of the facilities and premises of any organization whether private, NGO or public.

My first course choice is MSc. Real Estate and Property Management at University of Salford, Manchester. The course is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) an internationally recognized body that regulates professional conduct of property professionals. Completion of this course will enable me to upgrade my membership from a student member to a professional member. This way I will build my professionalism through attending webinars and CPDs organized by RICS. The Building in Use module of the course has a component of strategic Facilities Management which will introduce me to global FM strategies and their impact on the environment.

MSc. Real Estate Management at University of Portsmouth is my second course choice. The course is also RICS accredited and the university is one of the longest accredited centers. The course module called Construction Technology and Professional practice will enable be learn and research about more environmentally friendly construction technologies which I will use in the course of my work as a Facilities management professional

My third course choice is MSc. Real Estate Management at University of the West of England, Bristol. The university is ranked in Top 40 in the Guardian League Table 2019 and also has a Gold rating in Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), with these rankings am sure my career path will be in safe hands if I get a qualification from such an institution. The Master's course is also accredited by RICS which will make my journey to becoming a Chartered Surveyor smooth after completing the course. The course module Sustainability in the Built Environment will equip me with sustainable property maintenance skills.

Scholarship / Chevening scholarship Leadership essay - Community access road improvement [2]

Hello members,
Please read through my leadership and influence essay for Chevening scholarship 2019/2020. I will be grateful for any feedback.

stakeholder engagement and effective communication by a leader

For me leadership is the art of influencing people regardless of their socio-economic status so as to deliver a common objective using resources, ideas or skills they have at their disposal.

In 2015 when I was working as the Estates Manager of a neighborhood shopping center called The Village Mall, I realized that one of the access roads called Bandali Close to the mall was in a bad condition with many potholes and dusty during hot weather. The road measuring about 120 metres also served other nine properties which were both residential and commercial in use, it served as a delivery access road for our the shopping center with heavy trucks and other light vehicles using it to deliver stock to tenants. However there were no funds to have the road upgraded to bitumen standard since the developer was investing his monies in other property development projects.

I requested a friend of mine who is a roads engineer to get me an estimate of the cost of having this road stretch tarmacked, which he did and estimated it to Ushs. 70,000,000. Armed with the quotation, I persuaded the mall developer that I could mobilize owners of all properties along the road to contribute funds towards having the road tarmacked in a self-help model with the mall contributing the highest proportion (40%) since we were the major user of the road. The developer bought my idea and gave me a green light to kick start the project on condition that all people had to contribute money with no exceptions.

Together with my shopping center management team, we sent out letters to all people who had buildings along the road inviting them for a stakeholders' meeting to discuss the matter. I prepared the presentation notes for the meeting and I had them reviewed by my team members, I included the quotations and the methodology of determining how much each landlord was to contribute. Majority of the landlords were receptive of the initiative and pledge to contribute and support the project since it was cheaper than constructing it singlehandedly. I collaborated with our procurement person to invite more five contractors to present quotations for the project from which we selected the lowest bidder at Ushs. 53,000,000.

Letters were sent out to landlords advising them of the amount each was supposed to pay with a detailed project work plan and best evaluated bid. Funds were contributed as per plan and I was tasked by the mall developer to supervise the works and regularly report to the stakeholders on the progress. The road was successfully tarmacked which improved accessibility to the mall and neighbouring properties, the dust from the road which was a leading cause of flu to residents was also conclusively dealt with.

From this I learnt that stakeholder engagement and effective communication by a leader is key in realizing the objectives of any undertaking.

Scholarship / Old students associations; network can help overcome some of life's challenges [4]

Hello members,

I intend to apply for Chevening Scholarship for 2019/2020. Kindly go through my networking essay and advise me

Chevening Scholarship Network essay

One of the lessons that I have learnt in life is that having as many people as possible one knows in different spheres of life is enough to help one overcome some of life's challenges.

When I was at Makerere University Kampala for my undergraduate studies, I admired fellow students who were members of their Secondary schools Old Students associations. This was because my secondary school did not have an active Old Students association at the university partly because there were only a few students from the school who made it to university. My strong love for networking made me to go to old students associations for my friends' former schools, so as to interact with them and know more about what they deliberate on whenever they meet.

In 2012 I decided to open a Whatsapp group for old students of my secondary school called Mackay College Nateete which I called MACONA. I started with 10 members and I encouraged them to send through contacts of all old students they knew of so as to grow the network. The group membership grew to 100 people, and I encouraged members to share ideas of how we could use the group to improve our former school through fundraising for infrastructural projects. Many ideas were gathered however the group collapsed after 1 year of existence because some members had started to use it for personal gains.

After graduating from university, mobilized three former students of my primary school. I convinced them to start a Whatstapp group that brings together formers students of our primary school so that we could assist each other courtesy of career diversity of members. I opened the group on 10th October 2016 with 5 members, which grew to 120 in one month. We used the group to leverage on each member's profession to offer free professional guidance to members. The group comprised of Land Surveyors, Doctors, Techers, Bankers, Lawyers, Businessmen, and Civil Engineers among other professionals. In 2017 I collaborated with other members and we registered the group as a company limited by guarantee and named it Mirembe Old Students Association Limited (MOSA).

I was appointed as the Advisor of the newly formed association because of the role I played from inception to registration of the group. Through the association, we organize community outreach activities where we sensitize primary school students on HIV/AIDS prevention, wealth creation through saving and career guidance. I use the career guidance sessions to advise students to make the right career choices, and to also interest them in pursuing a career in real estate.