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NCARB rebranding says "interning" is now an "experience"

NCARB rebranding says "interning" is now an "experience"

By June this year, the Intern Development Program (IDP), run by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), will become known as Architectural Experience Program (AXP). The program intended to aid architects-in-training with their first steps into the profession was keen to ditch the term “intern.”

Hailed as a milestone, the decision was taken by the NCARB Board of Directors after more than a year’s worth of investigations carried out by NCARB committees. Eager to conduct a thorough methodology to proceedings, NCARB also relied on responses from state licensing boards, industry leaders, and emerging professionals.

In the past year the council has been making a number of changes with a view toward making the process of becoming an architect easier. In June last year the licensing process for foreign professionals was simplified as well as making full IDP credit available to be given to those who cast their licensure aside. In August, an Integrated Path Initiative, encouraged students to complete their IDP requirements and begin taking the Architect Registration Exam (ARE) all before graduation day. By September, 13 major schools had adopted this strategy which gave students much more flexibility.

“Renaming the IDP is another step in realigning our programs to better reflect current practice and terminology,” NCARB President Dennis Ward said in a statement. “For example, one firm may refer to a non-licensed employee as a ‘senior designer’ while another uses the title ‘project manager.’ Yet, neither is likely to introduce that individual to clients as an ‘intern.”

The change also comes off the back of advice from the council’s Future Title Task Force with NCARB announcing that the new title will come into force on June 29, 2016.

Due to each state having its own licensing requirements, the program’s new title will also include the caveat “formerly known as the Intern Development Program, or IDP” to cater for any laws that refer to the programs former name. And while NCARB may be eager to encourage the redaction of the term “intern,” state licensing boards will still have the authority to prescribe its own terminology for unlicensed professionals.

In a press release, NCARB reported that in the following months they will be working with “state licensing boards and the architectural community to implement these changes.”

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