The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) announced today that it will be making significant changes to its Intern Development Program (IDP). Separate from other considerations to change the IDP's terminology, this decision chiefly includes two phases: (1) the removal of "elective" hourly requirements, and (2) condensing IDP's experience areas from the current 17 into six "practice-based categories", linked to future sections planned for the revised Architect Registration Examination (ARE) 5.0. These changes will be implemented beginning mid-2015 and mid-2016, respectively.
By removing the "elective" IDP hours, NCARB is decreasing the total required from 5,600 to 3,740 (still based on the seventeen "core experience areas", until ARE 5.0 is in place). NCARB reportedly made this decision to cut down on the average amount of years it takes "interns" to become licensed. The current average is more than seven — five years for IDP and another 2.2 to complete the ARE. Under the revised IDP, NCARB estimates an average of three to four years to complete the program.
In mid-2016, the ARE's "experience categories" will be downsized to the six outlined in 2012 NCARB Practice Analysis of Architecture (page 40), and then officially implemented through ARE 5.0 in late 2016. The revisions are meant to reflect updates in the way architectural practice works today (emphasizing developments in technology and information communications).
NCARB also stresses that in order to actually realize whatever changes it makes to IDP, the adjustments must be enforced by its 54 jurisdictional boards across the U.S.
Here's the complete text from NCARB's official statement:
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22, 2014 — The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has voted to approve significant changes that will streamline and overhaul the Intern Development Program (IDP), which most states require to satisfy experience requirements for initial licensure as an architect. The changes will only be applicable where adoption has occurred by individual jurisdictional licensing boards.
The changes will be implemented in two phases. The first will streamline the program by focusing on the IDP’s core requirements and removing its elective requirements. The second phase will condense the 17 current experience areas into six practice-based categories that will also correspond with the divisions tested in the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®).
NCARB announced the proposals to modify the IDP in late June at its Annual Business Meeting, which was attended by representatives of its 54 member jurisdiction boards that oversee architect licensing in their states or territories. After reviewing the feedback from the boards, the Board of Directors voted to move forward with both proposals for implementation in mid-2015 and mid-2016.
“Streamlining of the IDP requirements will reduce complexities while ensuring that intern architects still acquire the comprehensive experience that is essential for competent practice, and result in a program that is both justifiable and defensible,” said NCARB President Dale McKinney, FAIA.
Phase 1: Focusing on Core Requirements
The IDP currently requires interns to document 5,600 hours of experience, with 3,740 of those hours as core requirements in specific architectural experience areas. The remaining 1,860 hours are elective hours. The first reinvention phase will streamline the IDP by removing the elective hour requirement, with interns documenting only the 3,740 hours in the 17 core experience areas.
In making its decision to eliminate the elective hours, the Board considered several important statistics:
Implementation and Jurisdictional Adoption
NCARB expects to implement the first phase on or before June 2015. Many states will need to formally adopt the streamlined program because of how experience requirements for licensure are written in their laws or rules.
“Our planning efforts will include development of a campaign to inform interns of the importance of understanding the variables in jurisdictional laws and rules related to the experience requirement when considering where they will apply for licensure,” McKinney said.
Phase 2: Aligning Internship and Examination
The Board also agreed to a future realignment of the framework of IDP requirements into six experience categories reflecting the six general areas of practice, which were identified by the 2012 NCARB Practice Analysis of Architecture. These changes will mirror the six divisions of a future version of the licensing exam, known as ARE 5.0.
NCARB’s internship-related committees will provide guidance on mapping the existing requirements into the new, overhauled format. This work should be completed and ready for introduction in mid-2016, before the launch of ARE 5.0 in late 2016.
6 Comments
Lol for anyone expecting major changes from ncarb.
So... they're streamlining this by cutting out the easy part. Now interns only have to do the hours that are tough to get. Reasonable move, but probably not going to reduce the duration of IDP by much.
jla-x, your disgruntlement is noted, but I'll say again: if you've been paying attention, NCARB *is* changing things, and relatively quickly. The ARE is changing, the terms under which one can begin to take the ARE are changing, and curriculums that allow a condensed path to licensure are coming, too.
I'm at 2854/3740 core hours, with another 6 month point coming on Thursday where I should fill in most of the rest... I'm projecting to finish the (soon to be meaningless) elective hours by... May 2015.. should I bother keeping track to get my license a month early (or at the same time if the change happens sooner)? I guess I might as well at this point...
Overall, I thought the changes in IDP 2.0 went far enough in making the hours easier to accumulate. My problem with this is that it hasn't even been long enough for someone to have finished the process under those rules, so I have a hard time seeing how there would be enough data to justify another dramatic change so soon. I signed up just before IDP 2.0 was implemented, and I will be finishing just before this next change is tentatively scheduled to happen. I'm fortunate to work in an office that actively exposes me to each of the core categories, but if that were not the case (which seems to be far too common) than it probably wouldn't be possible to get through IDP from start to finish without some major overhaul coming along to disrupt the process.
I'm supportive of reducing the duration of being an intern, but more so as a means to reduce the amount of labor abuse associated with the title. I do have to question whether this will have a net positive effect when weighing that against the possibility of producing less qualified licensed architects (of which there may already be plenty of), ultimately reducing the value of being a licensed professional.
I can't imagine many people would argue that elective hours are the issue here. If anything, it guarantees a minimum number of hours worked that probably made sense. IDP and the AREs needed to be streamlined, but the process does not need to be 'easier' in terms of hours worked or tests taken. Take the ARE's right out of school if you like - and you can - but without working for X number of years everyone will know you don't really know anything.
Tests, licenses, initials after your name on your business card... it's EXPERIENCE that really matters. And I think this is the real reason why licensure numbers are low - not because it's too difficult to get a license, but because for many people it doesn't make sense to bother with it. Their experience speaks for itself. At a large firm you will never stamp a drawing. You get hired for your experience, connections, and recommendations - not initals.
The people doing the hiring know that a licensed 27 year old is still super green. Getting everyone a license 3 years out of school just means that 'AIA' after your name will be nearly as meaningless as 'LEED AP'. People will start to stipulate that they got licensed under the old system, trash will be talked at the younger generation having it easy, and we'll have thousands of licensed architects who do door schedules and photoshop work all day every day because they barely know how a set of drawings goes together (yet).
FWIW - I'm not licensed yet, due almost entirely to my own laziness. At least I'm honest about it, unlike so many of the whiners. So far the tests and IDP requirements are certainly not "too hard".
Elective hours are extremely easy to get. Show up to any community event? Lunch n learn? There's no difficulty in finding and achieving that time. It's getting firms to give interns non-production work that's tough. Particularly with the number of recent grads who are BIM/Revit savvy (well beyond their supervisors) it's easy to see why so many interns cannot get their on-site, code research, etc. hours off the list.
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