Internationaal

Ook vanuit internationaal perspectief is de beroepservaringperiode wenselijk en noodzakelijk. In de internationale vakwereld wordt geadviseerd dat afgestudeerden voordat zij de architectentitel mogen voeren en als zodanig worden geregistreerd, twee jaar 'acceptabele' ervaring dienen te hebben opgedaan. Landen zoals België, Duitsland, Engeland en Frankrijk kennen reeds een verplichte beroepservaringperiode. Om de internationale concurrentie te kunnen bijhouden en de kenniseconomie een impuls te geven is het van groot belang dat Nederland in de pas blijft lopen met het buitenland.

Opleidingen en beroepservaringperiode zijn in de ons omringende landen verschillend ingericht.

  

English

The Architect Title Act (WAT in its Dutch acronym) came into effect on 1 October 1988. An office was established to administer the register in the same year: the 'Stichting Bureau Architectenregister' (SBA, or the Dutch Architecture Registration Board). The title protection associated with registration came into force five years later. Since then, only those who are registered in the Architects Register are entitled to use the title of architect, town planner, garden and landscape architect or interior architect. Entry in the register has been restricted thus far to those possessing the diploma in the relevant field as specified in the Act, from a university or higher professional education institution, if one had completed the so-called architects’ examination successfully, or if one was in possession of a foreign diploma. Until now professional experience or annual refresher or supplementary training have not been requirements for inclusion in the register.

The objectives which formed the basis for the Architect Title Act are:

  1. introducing guarantees of skilled professional practice by architects, town planners, garden and landscape architects and interior architects to promote the quality of the built environment and the landscape;
  2. implementing European directives for architects, town planners, garden and landscape architects and interior architects;
  3. consumer protection. This means that the principal may assume that if he engages a registered designer1, that individual will possess sufficient expertise to execute the assignment.

On 15 July 2008 the Architect Title Act was reviewed and the obligation to undergo continuing education and training was introduced. With this, the EU Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications was implemented in Dutch legislation.

We are now on the threshold of another change. On 10 July 2009 the Council of Ministers approved the proposal by Minister Jacqueline Cramer (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) for a change in the Architect Title Act. The desirability and necessity of changing the Act has been coordinated with the ministries of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and of Education, Culture and Science. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a co-signatory to the Act in connection with its involvement in the Autonomous Administrative Authorities Framework Act (2006). The changes in the WAT are intended to make it a more powerful instrument of quality.

In addition to having undergone appropriate training, a designer included in the Architects Register is obliged to have acquired sufficient professional experience. In other words, he or she must have the knowledge, the insight and the skills needed to fulfil the responsibility with the other partners for the realisation, planning and design process.

For further information you can download the Management Summary.