Are architects ready for circular transition? Continuous Professional Development tools for Europe

On Tuesday, the 28 November, BUILDUP hosted the third webinar organised by the Architects Council of Europe (ACE) as part of the BUSGoCircular project in a series of four webinars. The third webinar aimed to inform the architectural community about the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme and training materials on sustainability and circularity available at the EU Level and national level. 

“Architects provide intellectual services based on specific professional knowledge, skills and competence, gained through a demanding initial academic training and enhanced through Continuous Professional Development (CPD)” as published in a joint statement by the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) and the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) in April 2023. CPD is a fundamental tool to upskill architects in new areas of work such as sustainability and circularity to achieve high-quality built environments as a key element of the New European Bauhaus.

The first part of this webinar provided information about the work developed by the Architects Council of Europe on CPD, followed by the presentation of the CPD framework and training offers for architects in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland. The second part was dedicated to present the European Circular Skills Framework and the training resources developed by the EU-funded BUSGoCircular project. 

At the European level, Ms Joni Tyler, Head of CPD Standards at the RIBA and ACE CPD Chair, presented the Architectural Sector Observatory developed by ACE as well as the CPD Guidelines and the Register webpage. She pointed out that “CPDs requirements are a standard and structured way to maintaining and developing competence and also upskilling and reskilling to battle climate change.” Mr Martin Breen, a researcher at TUS in Ireland and a partner in the BUSGoCircular project gave a detailed presentation about the BUSGoCircular Circular Skills Qualification Framework which is suitable for implementation in any European country. Ms. Larissa De Rosso, presented the BUSGoCircular training material about the Introduction of Circular Economy and EU Policy framework on Sustainability and energy efficiency in Buildings. 

Joni Tyler: “CPDs requirements are a standard and structured way to maintaining and developing competence and also upskilling and reskilling to battle climate change.” 

At the national level, Ms Anneleen de Jong, Senior Policy at the Dutch Architectural Register Office and Ms Caroline Gentner, Internationalisation Coordinator at BNA the Netherlands presented the Dutch CPD framework and the training offers by the BNA Academy. Ms Sandra Campbell, Education Director at the RIAI, Ireland provided a detailed overview on the Irish CPD policy and events. Ms Joni Tyler presented the RIBA Academy in the UK and its Climate Action. Finally, Ms Michalina Joanna Fratczak, architectural designer at ENTREarchitecture in Portugal and Ms Karolína Barič, co-founder of ZERO Architecture & Rethink Architecture, both qualified trainers from the BUSGoCircular project participated in a round table hosted by Ms Pavla Dvořáková, Czech Technical University in Prague and BUSGoCircular partner to discuss the possibilities of applying the BUSGoCircular framework and training materials in their respective countries. Talking about the BUSGoCircular framework, Michalina Joanna Fratczak highlighted that “The BUSGoCircular framework is useful not only to prepare a course but also to implement in our consultancy”, while Karolína Barič stated that “The BUSGoCircular framework provide information on the level of awareness in the Circular topic for different target groups”. 

Michalina Joanna Fratczak: “The BUSGoCircular framework is useful not only to prepare a course but also to implement in our consultancy.” 

Karolína Barič: “The BUSGoCiruclar framework provide information on the level of awareness in the Circular topic for different target groups”.

At the end of the session, an interactive survey showed that most of the audience were interested in CPD courses to be recognise in different member stated in Europe. The majority also believed that a European CPD framework can facilitate the professional mobility between European Countries.

References:

• Architects Council of Europe Observatory 
• Architects Council of Europe CPD register
• Architects Council of European CPD guidelines
• CPDs at EU level
• UK RIBA climate action
• UK RIBA - Building and fire safety
• UK RIBA Academy CPD content from RIBA 
• UK RIBA CPD from manufacturers 
• NE  - Architecten register
• NE - BNA Academy
• IE - RIAI CPD policy
• IE - RIAI Standards of Competence
• IE - RIAI CPD events
• IE - RIAI Design for manufacture and assembly guidance
• IE - RIAI Statement of Policy on Education
• IE - RIAI Research and Policy: Climate change
• BUSGoCircular - Circular Skills Qualification Framework
• BUSGoCircular - Training resources