Internally Yours: Your AIBC Intern Architect Rep to Council Blog

More Alphabet Soup: CERB, OR, ExAC, CHOP

Minorly good news for Canadian architectural graduates applying for internship: no more degree certification fees! See news at CACB which they just posted 4 days ago. Still boggles my mind why a degree from an accredited architecture school needs to be 'certified', being itself a certificate. Do they run it through a counterfeit machine?

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A friend of mine got registered last fall, and got the stamp / professional seal in the mail. I can't remember what was said, but the new Architect.aibc said that it was quite a deflating moment to see the stamp in the package it came. For so long, you jump over all these obstacles for basic entry into the profession - more than any other in BC (ie, law, medical, engineering) - and this thing comes in a package that looks like it came out of a dollar store.

Sigh. The quality of pictures are often enhanced by their frames, as are objects and their boxes.

It's a good thing to not puff up an architect's ego, but this really is the one very personal and highly symbolic moment of achievement that is worth providing a package that speaks of professional honour, respect and dignity. We should welcome and give all new architects a good start this way.

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I could hardly believe it myself but after 3 years since my last submission I finally completed my hours, gave it to my boss to review, and saw my mentor on Friday. Did he remember what I looked like? A co-worker suggested that I wear a "Hello, My Name is... " badge just in case.

I'm still missing construction hours but if this one project continues that I should be fine. Intern needs in a recession are hardly a priority for any architect-employer out there now - everyone just wants to keep their business afloat period and I should be glad I'm still on the payroll. But through thick and thin, would not actively assisting the registration process for the next generation, in ways only they and no others can, be considered professional negligence?

The Oral Review (Feb. 18th and 19th), and paying my dues, is now the focus for the next bit. Doing the same thing, studying at the coffee shop on weekend mornings. My mentor's offered to grill me a week before so that should keep me on my toes.

After my meeting I got to hang out with his office for Friday drinks. Spoke to a few interns there - they seemed to be very 'representative' of our group. One from the so-called 'Winnipeg West group', another who I knew from UBC, and one from the UK who is digging through all his past coursework as part of the $1300 degree certification (ouch! are they charging foreign-qualified more to cover the Canadians who don't need to pay anymore?), and translating it all from UK English to Canadian English (kidding). We talked about the Canadian ExAC. Essentially if you want to be an architect quick and work only in Canada, go to any other province, do the ExAC and come back via the national reciprocity agreements. However, to do the NCARB route opens the door to working in the US; NCARB also talks to other jurisdications beyond North America.

My view is that if one set of requirements - whether ExAC or NCARBs - give an intern a chance toward global reciprocity as future architect then that set is worthwhile doing in this age of globalization. It's a survival tool, until someone figures out how to re-engineer this boom and bust economy that our industry is so strapped to. And the last thing you want to do is put a practicing, successful Canadian architect (i.e. ExAC graduate) through another set of exams (i.e. NCARBs) in his or her mid 50's in order to do a community centre in Fargo.

Dream world: 75% of interns in North America become fully qualified architects by the time they reach 30 and enjoy global reciprocity. They spend the next half of their working lives as the amazing people they are trained to be. There is one Canadian registration organization - existing in the full power and potential of cyberspace - that architectural graduates, interns and architects turn to and is the negotiating voice with the other registration boards in the world.

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Meanwhile, I have to get my hands on a CHOP - will probably pick one up ($300) at the AIBC tomorrow. My office doesn't have one, and has managed without one for 3 decades. The Northwest Territories Association of Architects overview of the IAP, they require that all employers with interns "must have a copy of the Canadian Handbook of Practice for Architects (CHOP) available to the Intern Architect". Good idea.

posted by Lisa @ 11:42 AM