ARB Commission on Professional Practical Experience
Ryder is pleased to see the independent Professional Practical Experience Commission report presented to the Architects Registration Board (ARB), following a year of research.
The Commission, chaired by Professor Sir Chris Husbands, was appointed in 2024 to investigate the challenges faced by architecture trainees in gaining appropriate professional practical experience on their journey to registration and to make recommendations on improvements.
Peter Barker, partner at Ryder, was a member of the Commission representing architectural employers. With over 40 years in practice, Peter has played a vital role in opening new career routes into architecture and the built environment sector. His work includes the growth of Ryder and Gateshead College’s award winning PlanBEE (Built Environment Education) programme, developing a new Level 6 cross disciplinary degree apprenticeship in design, construction and management and support for Level 7 architecture degree apprenticeships.
The ARB has welcomed the publication of the Commission report which outlines a bold and necessary transformation to better support future architects in gaining quality work experience.
Following 12 months of extensive engagement with trainees, learning providers and practices across the UK, the Commission concluded that too much responsibility and risk lies with trainees and that this undermines the quality of their work experience. The Commission makes three headline recommendations, calling on the ARB as the regulator, learning providers, and architectural employers to take meaningful action:
- ARB should remove constraints to flexibility and innovation to lead sustainable change across the profession
- Learning providers should take a co-ordinating role in facilitating trainees’ acquisition of all the Competency Outcomes
- Significant improvements in workplace culture should be secured to strengthen how competence is gained
ARB has committed to implementing the Commission’s three headline recommendations. While detailed decisions on how to approach the individual actions under each recommendation are still to be made, the ARB board will fully consider the report’s proposals and explore opportunities to embed them within its existing programmes of work. The next steps will be announced this summer.
Figure 1: summary of Professional Practical Experience Commission recommendations
Commenting on his role in the Commission, Peter, said: “The recommendations we have developed are the result of extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and we have placed the needs of trainees at the centre. We have attempted to develop approaches which consider the whole system of architecture education.
“We have aimed for simplicity, effectiveness, consistency with regulatory changes, and we have tried to be future focused. We’re encouraged by ARB’s positive reception to our findings and recommendations and look forward to seeing these come to fruition.”
Read more in the report, and wider industry conversations in AJ, Building Design, and the RIBA Journal.