Brain drain is a general term use to describe the general exit of skilled individuals from the country to other countries which they suspect to be more beneficial to their career growth. In an article I wrote in 2014, I divided brain drain into two namely, geographical brain drain and occupational brain drain. In a profession like Quantity Surveying especially in a country like Nigeria, occupational brain is the most experienced type of brain drain.

Occupational brain drain in this context can be seen as the movement of graduates of a particular discipline to another during their build up to their career. Quantity surveying practice in Nigeria can be traced back to the mid 1960's when few Nigeria QS from abroad came back to the country to kick off the career and thus the creation of the professional body NIQS.

The profession over the years has been growing both in numerical strength and in their services to the clients. The same cannot be said for the number of graduates who wants to take a career in the profession. Most QS graduates in Nigeria unlike their colleague in sisters profession in the built environment switch to other profession and career choices which most of the time is not in line with the construction industry. Many factors are to be blamed for this ill practice among the younger generation, some of them include
1. Low remuneration by employers, which is a general practice among Nigeria employers, though it seems the worst case scenario is that of young QS working in a private firm.
2. Lack of the basic skills as a result of the lesson learnt from lecturers
3. The pressure to succeed associated with the present day youths.
4. Generational gap between the QS's in Nigeria
5.Lucrative offer of other career.

Most QS especially the elderly ones whom have been in the game for a very long time may not understand the implications of this actions by the younger generations of QS, but they have implications and some of them which includes massive decrease in the numerical strength of professionals in the profession in years to come, the ratio of a qs to the project on ground will be low marking the architects and civil engineers taking over the jobs of QS in no distant time. Another implications of this is number of quacks that will be seen in the profession in years to come.

This occupational brain drain can be arrested if and only if the professional body can be sincere to themselves and do the right thing at the right time. One of the ways to control the exodus is to state an approved pay which can at least take care the needs of an average Nigerian in this present economic dispensation. Another way to control this especially in the area of QS education is for NBTE and NUC to carry out supervision on lectures employed by most institution offering QS. Elderly QS can also close the generational gap that presently exist in the profession by understanding the trend in the industry (ICT) and try to embrace it and also the younger generation should humbly learn the skills from older generation of QS as it have been proven that QS profession gets better and easier as the years of experience increases..