Registration and Licensing
To Be (An Architect) or Not To Be Joan Hendriks Architect AIBC MRAIC Manager of Registration and Licensing
An ongoing theme in discussions
among architects, intern architects, AIBC Council members and AIBC staff concerns the future of the profession. More specifically, what can be done to facilitate the transition of intern architects to architects, an issue across the country and elsewhere in North America. There have been recent initiatives intended to streamline the registration process and offer IAs options for completing the examination requirement for registration. Additionally, the Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect Program, begun at the AIBC, has undergone national review and updating, and is now scheduled to debut nation-wide later this fall under the auspices of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board. Along those same lines, this past January a number of largescale changes to the Internship in Architecture Program (IAP) came into effect across Canada. These changes were the result of deliberations by a national task force of the Canadian Architectural Licensing Authorities. The task force had been charged with modernizing and streamlining the registration process, and focused especially on enhancing the efficiency of the program so that IAs could complete their registration in a shorter time frame without compromising rigorous registration standards. The resulting IAP changes adopted nationally
include a reduction in the overall experience hours required as well as the elimination of discretionary and retroactive experience submissions. With a streamlined process in place, there is now also additional opportunity for IAs in British Columbia on the path to registration. At its July 2012 meeting, AIBC Council announced its commitment to participating in the Examination for Architects in Canada. It is expected that AIBC IAs will be able to take the annual ExAC as early as the fall of 2013. In addition, the institute will continue to recognize and support the National Council Architectural Registration Board’s Architectural Registration Examination, allowing IAs to be eligible for reciprocal licensing and practice options within the U.S.A. The AIBC’s participation in ExAC will provide added opportunities for IAs while further harmonizing national standards. Even with NCARB’s recent announcement that Canadian-specific content will no longer be part of its exams, the AIBC will continue to offer and support both ExAC and NCARB into the foreseeable future. This will enable IAs already invested in the NCARB process to continue onwards to registration without setback. It will also allow future IAs to look at the program options and choose the best path for their architectural career to which they aspire.
In doing so, IAs will have several factors to consider when deciding between which examination system they wish to pursue. For those who have already started in ARE process, a significant consideration is the fact that there will be no equivalencies between the ARE exam divisions and ExAC exam sections; registration will entail either the four ExAC sections or the seven ARE divisions. Another consideration is one’s desire for reciprocal registration with American jurisdictions, since at this time the NCARB ARE continues to be the standard for the NCARB certificate necessary to be licensed in the U.S.A. Yet another consideration, and a fundamental difference between ExAC and NCARB AREs, is the amount of flexibility offered in the timing of examinations. The ExAC follows a specific schedule; it is a pencil-and-paper exam offered once a year. The registration period is generally from the beginning of June architectureBC 103