CE or Not CE

by Bill Bisson, AIA

Chairman, Board of Licensure for Architects, Landscape Architects and Interior Designers

That is THE question. At present Maine does not require Continuing Education (CE) as a condition for an architect to get or keep a license, and we are among 34 NCARB jurisdictions that don’t have such requirements (out of 55 total). However, eight more jurisdictions have enabling legislation in the pipeline, so we will eventually be in the minority. To add fuel to the fire, Article 5 of NCARB’s current Strategic Plan calls for the elimination of all “impediments to mutual reciprocity” by 2010, which amount to a de facto endorsement of universal CE—and a published deadline for getting to it.

But, besides going with the flow, what’s in CE for ME? Regardless of the bandwagon factor, the pivotal question for the Board must be: “Does requiring CE for Maine architects help to protect the public?”

Given the accelerating rate of change in the world, I think the answer ultimately has to be YES. Licensed architects are key players in creating and sustaining the built environment, and as such must stay abreast of developments that affect their profession. Also, it’s demonstrable that CE has tangible value to the individual, by providing the proverbial “kick in the pants” for practitioners to learn new skills or brush-up on rusty ones—and enhance their cognitive abilities in the process. Finally, it’s reasonable to believe that mandatory CE brings architects in line with other learned professions, and helps to maintain our good public image.

On the other hand, there have been recent third-party studies of large groups of architects and other licensed professionals, which show that mandatory CE does not always have positive impact on professional performance. Usually, this is when required CE courses aren’t relevant to the work that a practitioner is actually doing, or when obtaining acceptable CE credits becomes too expensive, time-consuming or otherwise onerous for licensees.

A win-win answer seems to be to recognize a broad range of CE resources that are Acceptable, Accessible and Affordable. Many jurisdictions already do this, and licensee satisfaction generally is in direct proportion to how well their programs follow those three A’s. To its credit, parts of AIA’s CE program have served admirably as examples for various jurisdictional programs to imitate, and NCARB is currently working on a parallel system for its own certificate holders. Considering the above, it is essentially a slam-dunk that CE will be on our Board’s radar. So the first question is “how to do it?” The second question will be “what will it consist of?”

The Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation has researched the first question, and has concluded that State law prohibits us from imposing CE requirements by Board Rule. This means that CE requirements will have to come from changes to the underlying Statute, which will require Legislative action. To that end, the Board will probably ask the Legislature for a statutory re-write. The bill cannot be considered until the 2007 legislative session, which will give us time to answer the second question—as we develop the details of the CE program, including subject matter, contact hour requirements, enforcement, administration and more.

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