Measure of Competency - Analogy 2: Accreditation

I have another analogy for you in this particular case, it relates to something that about 80% of architects in the United States are familiar with, because 80% of architects have an accredited degree in architecture before they get licensed.

The accreditation process is administered by the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB). NAAB has conditions for accreditation, so they actually set up a system for evaluating schools of architecture so that there's consistency between schools.

Each school is going to have a unique character, unique culture, but the basics of what architectural students need to know by the time they get their degree is clearly defined in the conditions of accreditation. There are many aspects of the accreditation process that happens every five years in every school of architecture.

Many of you probably don't realize that I taught architecture at universities for 10 years before I really started this last stretch of professional practice. As a licensed architect, I was a full time Professor of Architecture at Kansas State University for five years, and the University of Texas at San Antonio for five years.

In both places, I participated in re-accreditation, or initial accreditation processes. At the University of Texas San Antonio, we were working on an initial accreditation process.

There's criteria that the schools have to demonstrate that they're actually being able to teach students the things that NAAB wants them to know. And while there's many other things about program criteria and university criteria and the overall context of education, the student criteria is quite clear. It covers six areas:

1. Health, safety and welfare of the built environment, in which students are supposed to understand the impact of the built environment on human health, safety and welfare at multiple scales, from buildings to cities.

2. Professional Practice. Students have to understand the professional ethics and regulatory requirements and the fundamental business processes relevant to architectural practice in the United States.

3. Regulatory Context. Students have to understand fundamental principles of life safety, land use and current laws or regulations that apply to buildings and sites in the United States.

4. Technical Knowledge. Understanding established and emerging systems and technologies and assemblies of building construction, and the methods and criteria architects use to assess those technologies against other conditions.

5. Design Synthesis. Now, in design synthesis, it's not really about understanding, it's about demonstrating the ability to make design decisions within architectural projects and demonstrating synthesis of user requirements, regulatory requirements and all the issues that go into designing a project.

6. Building Integration. Students have to demonstrate that they have developed the ability to make design decisions and within architectural projects while demonstrating the integration of building envelope systems and assemblies, structural systems, environmental control systems and life safety systems.

They have specific criteria that become the objectives of what is taught in an architecture school, and the outcomes are the demonstration that the schools actually have to show the accreditation team that's reviewing the accreditation of that school student projects and the results of the courses that they're taking, the syllabus, the examples, the reading material, they actually have to show what the students did to demonstrate that they're compliant with the accreditation process.

Why can't professional experience be done in a similar way, where what you do, the tasks that you do in your work, get demonstrated, and that's what really counts. That's what goes toward your competency, not just ticking off hours in particular categories.