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Quantifiable documentation now shows that continuing education is effecting a major reshaping of professional development within the design profession. Documentation includes statistical baselines of continuing education programs assembled from the AIA/CES University of Oklahoma database, AIA national convention, and 2000-2002 AIA Firm Survey. Reinforcing the validity of our findings is an 18-year study by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE), which also shows the effect of continuing professional education on job performance.

Unfortunately, albeit understandably, feedback from members and others often focuses on minimum requirements rather than enhanced job performance. Those who believe that continuing education in architecture means no more than meeting the AIA’s annual continuing education requirement of 18 LU hours (8 hours of which must meet health, safety, and welfare requirements) or the minimum state mandatory continuing education (MCE) requirements, should stop and refocus on what the AIA elected leadership intended seven years ago when they implemented the AIA/CES: reinforcing the professional goal of life-long learning and developing a solid organizational structure to support architects’ professional development.

Professional development: A statistical baseline
A 2000 study by Clemson University analyzed the continuing education programs from the AIA/CES University of Oklahoma database covering a period of activity from January 1, 1999 to July 1, 2000. The study results, which concentrated on architecture firms, were published in the AIA 2001 CES Provider Manual. The Clemson study was followed up by the 2000-2002 AIA Firm Survey, which established a statistical baseline about continuing education within architecture firms.

The studies show that as the number of CES in-firm providers has grown from 25 in 1995 to 511 today, architects and firms are rethinking their current approach toward continuing education and training. Firms are now putting into place a systematic approach to developing quality educational programming for their architects and engineers to make the best use of time and resources. For instance, instead of offering training programs because a product rep brings lunch, professional development specialists in architecture firms are using the identified needs of the firm as the basis for selecting which product rep or CES provider to invite into the firm.

Provider programs can still satisfy some of the AIA/CES requirements as well as some of the state’s MCE requirements, and many will still provide a free lunch. However, a firm’s professional development program now begins to look more like this:

Identified need(s) > LUs/MCE > and maybe even a lunch

rather than this:

Lunch > LUs/MCE > immediate need (maybe).

Professional development: A change of behavior
Statistics of continuing education programs taken by architects at the AIA national convention over the past 20 years show a change in the type of programs they choose. For years, the top-10-attended sessions at the AIA national conventions had been on presentation skills, marketing, leadership, and occasionally design issues. When the AIA and the state licensing boards began to require HSW as part of their MCE requirements, this pattern was broken. For the first time, during the 2000, 2001, and 2002 conventions, 3-5 of the top 10 attended programs were HSW-related. In 2001, the top attended program was “Mainstreaming Green” an HSW program by Peter L. Pfeiffer. (The AIA national convention continuing education statistics are published annually in the AIA/CES Provider’s Manual.)

A recent report by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE) reviewed 99 studies conducted from 1975 to 1994, in which continuing professional education programs were evaluated. The study may have relevance to the AIA/CES program because the ACPE has an organizational structure similar to that of the AIA. The research study, “Continuing Medical Education and the Physician as a Learner,” headed by P.E. Mazmanian and D.A. Davis (JAMA 2002; Vol. 288), was designed to evaluate eight educational interventions on physician performance and health-care outcomes. Its primary question was “They may have received CE credit, but what have they learned, how have they developed professionally, and what will be the impact on their practice and their patients’ health care?”

The results, according to the article, showed that:
70 percent of studies evaluated reported a positive change in performance
48 percent of students evaluated a positive change in health-care outcomes.
(For additional information contact: ACPE Executive Director Peter H. Vlasses, PharmD, BCPS. pvlasses@acpe-accredit.org.)

Professional development or requirement?
Some architects do pursue continuing education solely to meet their state licensing requirements for MCE or the AIA Continuing Education System (CES) requirements. As of March 2003, 26 states and 10 Canadian provinces have enacted MCE requirements. Seventeen other states are at various levels of legislative activity and 16 countries overseas now require MCE. The average AIA member holds three state licenses, so the odds of holding a license within a state with a MCE requirement has increased dramatically from nine years ago, when only three states had enacted MCE. Anticipation of this trend in state licensing requirements by the AIA Board of Directors and convention delegates was one factor that led to development of the AIA/CES. By developing a structured program, the AIA is ensuring that the professional development requirements are, indeed, helping to set AIA members at the highest level of performance within the profession.

It doesn’t matter whether you call it continuing education units (CEU), learning units (LUs), professional development hours (PDH), or mandatory continuing education (MCE), each state and profession seems to create its own terms for its own professionals. Regardless, the states are trying to develop accountability for professionals, and continuing education is one way they have chosen to measure it. For architects, continuing education emphasizes professional learning and enables them to master new knowledge and skills, increase profitability, plan for the future, and responsibly meet the role society entrusts to a professional. Because of this, continuing education has the potential to be one of the primary forces in the improvement and revitalization of professional development throughout the design profession.

Continuing education programs within the profession include AIA and CSI chapter meetings; in-firm lunch programs; distance education formats; and weekend conferences by universities, nonprofit organizations, manufactures, and government agencies. For a comprehensive list of continuing education programs, visit http://www.aia.org/conted/ and select “CES Programs.”

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