Oral Reviews - Tuesday, June 22 and Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The AIBC will be hosting its next set of oral reviews on June 22 and 23, 2010. The oral review is open to those intern architects who have:

* completed and logged at least 2800 hours; and
* completed the required AIBC courses.

Eligibility will be confirmed by the Registration & Licensing department. Click here to view complete details and to download the application form.

In preparation for the oral reviews, the AIBC will be hosting an Oral Review Preparation Workshop on Wednesday, June 2 at 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at the AIBC offices (#100 - 440 Cambie Street, Vancouver). All interns and alternative qualifications candidates are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to registration@aibc.ca

The application, the letter from your employer and the oral review application fee, must be received by Wednesday, June 9th, 2010.

If you have any questions regarding the oral review or the application for registration, please contact the Manager of Registration and Licensing, Róisín O’Neill, at registration@aibc.ca.

Cornelia Oberlander on PRAM

If you haven't stumbled across the interview with Cornelia Oberlander on the PRAM site I recommend it highly. It's not everyday that you get a peek into the creative and domestic life of such an auspicious designer. Renowned North American Landscape Architect and Order of Canada recipient, Cornelia estimates that she's cooked 143,000 meals in 56 years of marriage (minus seven days) that included raising 3 children.

Four additional interviews should be going "live" anytime now.

Under "resources" be sure to have a look at the RIBA 2003 study titled "Why Women Leave Architecture". This document is a concise read with content that is relevant to both women and men.

Stephanie Robb MAIBC

PRAM

Dear Interns Architects,

There seems to be a high rate of attrition of women in the architectural profession.
With a copy of the 2008 AIBC Member Directory, a pencil and a calculator, I recently tallied some numbers.

In 2008…
51% of the population of Metro Vancouver was women.
45% of the graduating class at UBC SALA were women.
42% of the award recipients at UBC SALA were women
38% of the intern membership at the AIBC were women.
11% of the registered architects (MAIBC) at the AIBC were women.
2% of BC architecture firms greater than four people were owned by women.

I'm not an Ipsos Reid pollster - but I think these numbers indicate a problem.
For some reason, significant numbers of women are choosing to leave the profession during their internship.

Hmmm...I wonder why?

Low pay?
Long hours?
Laddish culture?
Family unfriendly work environment?

Pram In The Hall is a feature posted on the AIBC website which begins to address this issue. It consists of a series of interviews with women and men who practice while raising children.

There are some "resources" listed as well.
Be sure to have a look at the 2003 RIBA study titled "Why Women Leave Architecture" - it's surprisingly good reading. (The issue of "sidelining" really hit home for me).

And finally, please post a comment on the "feedback" page if you feel inclined.
The powers at be are aware that this is an important issue,
and every comment posted just adds more traction.

Thank You,

Stephanie Robb MAIBC
(Mother, Principal, Registration & Licensing Board Member, and 2010 Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture recipient)

Intern Survey Part 1: Summary and Response

The first in a series of Intern Surveys was concluded in 2009. The results of that survey reveal interesting information which will be considered by not only the Intern Architect Committee, but also the Registration and Licensing Board and, ultimately, Council itself.

If you would like to see the summary results of the survey, they are available at the Survey Monkey site.

First of all, we were gratified that 84 interns chose to respond to the survey (about 20% of the intern group). Thank you to all who responded. This survey covered background information such as route of entry to internship, employment situations and compensation. Future surveys will drill down into more specific areas and issues of concern for interns and the profession.

Some of the interesting “learnings” from this survey include:

• The most important factor for interns’ choice of firm appears to be the level of responsibility granted. This is overwhelmingly so, with over 90 percent of responses in the somewhat to very important range. Compensation, reputation of firm, firm practice emphasis, and commitment to interns fall in a roughly equal band at 72-78 percent somewhat to very important. Surprisingly, benefits and personal/family considerations, rank relatively low on the scale.

• A considerable number of respondents (35%) that they do not get sufficient exposure to the necessary range of work to complete their CERB hours. The detailed responses reveal that contract and construction administration are the areas of most concern. This is borne out by results of oral review exams where these areas are the most common ones in which candidates fall short.
• On the brighter side, perhaps, is that almost half of the respondents report salaries of $55,000 or more. This is tempered by the comments received on the survey that it was not sufficiently granular at the $60,000 or more level and by the fact that 30% of interns report that they are not being compensated for overtime as is required by employment legislation in BC.
• Most telling of all are the responses to questions 16 through 19 which reveal general dissatisfaction with the way in which interns are valued and compensated. A large majority (over 70 percent) of respondents feel that they have not been adequately compensated and almost 60 percent of respondents report that they do not feel that the time and energy spent towards getting registered has not been worthwhile. The detailed responses to this question reveal a range of issues ranging from educational experience, length and difficulty of the registration process, compensation and work-life issues, and direction of the profession itself as contributing factors. Future surveys will look at some of these issues in more detail.
• Closing out on this theme, question 20 asked for ideas and suggestions about intern surveys. There were a number of useful responses/themes which will help improve how we do surveys and provide topics for future surveys. Stay tuned.

AIBC Council Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010/11 AIBC Council. One of the positions available is the Intern Architect Liaison. This is your opportunity to help shape the body responsible for the governance of the profession in this province and represent the intern architects of the AIBC. Your respective nomination form will soon arriving in the mail. They are also available online, on the AIBC Council page. All nominations must be received at the AIBC offices no later than 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, 2010. The election closes at the Annual Meeting on May 8, 2010.

Your IAC encourages anyone who is interested in getting involved to apply!