The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) earlier this month completed the three-phase rollout of its Intern Development Program 2.0. Among its updates, the previous eight work experience settings are now recategorized into three groups that distribute the original 5,600 required hours into Practice of Architecture (A), Other Work Settings (O), and Supplemental Experience (S).
“What we were able to do with this phase is tie it to the actual tasks that were deemed to be required for competent practice upon initial licensure by the profession who did the [Practice Analysis of Architecture] survey back in 2007,” says program director Harry Falconer.
The final phase also incorporates four experience categories, in some cases combining or splitting the components of the previous criteria: Pre-Design (260 core minimum hours), Design (2,600 core minimum hours), Project Management (720 core minimum hours), and Practice Management (160 core minimum hours). These categories are further divided into 17 experience areas to total a minimum of 3,740 hours. The remaining 1,860 elective hours can be fulfilled by core hours or supplemental experience; some additional experiences in the Supplemental Experience setting may be fulfilled regardless of employment status.
NCARB’s program updates also include a revamped online reporting system and a provision that allows some program supervisors to participate without being licensed in the area where they review and approve experience reports. Interns are now able to receive up to 930 hours of program credit in most experience areas in settings A or O for some academic internships.
According to Falconer, the changes come largely from the 2007 self-audit of both the internship program and the demands placed on newly licensed architects. “About seven years ago our board of directors realized the program had not been evolving with … how we practice architecture today,” Falconer says. “We saw the need to bring it up to current standards of the expectations from our member boards and from the public on what an intern should know once they’re licensed initially.”
For more information on the changes, you can read NCARB’s full release.
