The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched its new CPD core curriculum, which has been redesigned for greater simplicity to ensure that architects possess the most relevant skills and up to date knowledge to remain at the forefront of their profession. In the current economic climate, these key skills can help them to stay competent and resilient, and to protect themselves and their businesses.
The RIBA's new core curriculum switches to an annual CPD requirement focusing upon the following ten key topics; architects are required to spend at least two hours per topic per year, compared to thirty one topics over five years:
- Being safe: health and safety
- Climate: sustainable architecture
- External management: clients, users, and delivery of services
- Internal management: professionalism, practice, business and management
- Compliance: legal, regulatory and statutory framework and processes
- Building procurement and contracts
- Constructing it: structural design, construction, technology and engineering
- Where people live: communities, urban design and planning process
- Context: the historic environment and its setting
- Access for all: universal/inclusive design
This much simplified structure will enable architects to tailor their CPD requirements to suit their area of professional expertise; the more or less detail an architect needs in their practice or daily life, the more or less detailed their CPD on core topics could be.
Members will be required to meet the following requirements:
- 35 hours of CPD input
- 100 points assigned to activities as a means of self-reflection
- At least half, where possible, should be structured
- At least 20 hours to be assigned to core curriculum topics, at least two hours per topic each year.
"The new RIBA core curriculum offers a simple and streamlined yet effective and innovative new approach to learning, which will help our members much more easily to stay resilient and yet to maintain basic skills at the same time," said Joni Tyler, Head of CPD Policy at the RIBA. "It will also help the RIBA to refine and target its CPD offers to RIBA members better. The new structure also enables architects to pursue CPD to acquire new specialisms more easily, helping them to diversify and learn new skills. The new approach allows architects to take ownership of their CPD and use it to their own ends in support of their own needs, their businesses, new areas of work, new clients and new income."