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Employers Guide to Professional Experience - Introduction

Welcome to the section of the PEDR designed to help employers and students to arrange successful and effective professional experience employment. The aim is to clarify expectations and support individual practice frameworks for employing students during their mandatory periods of professional experience employment. Included here are:

1. The RIBA Employment Policy
2. Models for student employment contracts for Stage 1 and Stage 2
3. Guidance on arranging professional experience employment:
   • Examples of professional experience job profiles for Stage 1 and Stage 2
   • Guidance on time off in lieu of overtime
   • Guidance on 'Part 3' professional casework requirements
4. Resourcing professional experience employment:
   • Appointing a Professional Experience Mentor for student employees
   • Information on student salaries
5. Making the most of the learning opportunities of your practice
   • A matrix of professional work experience activities for Stage 1 and Stage 2

1. RIBA Employment Policy

The RIBA is committed to promoting best employment practice and equal opportunities in the architecture profession and has adopted a policy statement on employment practice aimed at the profession as a whole. The policy statement, approved by Council in May 2004, is accompanied by four key commitments made by the RIBA towards achieving best practice, as well as aspirational guidance for employers and employees to help facilitate good employment practice.

The policy will be expanded upon in a new Employment Best Practice guide to be developed and published in association with Workplace Law Network towards the end of 2004. The guide will offer practical advice to employers and provide pragmatic and practical support to the application of best practice, offering tools such as model employment contracts, case studies, best practice checklists and where to find the most up-to-date information on employment legislation.

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2. Model Professional Experience Employment Contracts

The Model Professional Experience & Development Employment Contracts indicate the range of issues employers and students need to consider when arranging professional experience employment.

There are two separate model contracts, providing guidance to employers of:

1. 'Year Out' students working at Stage 1 of Professional Experience & Development before returning to university to complete the Part 2 stage of their course,
2. Post-Part 2 graduates who have completed their academic studies and are working at Stage 2 Professional Experience and Development Employment towards their Part 3 Examination

Each model contract reflects the different levels of ability, learning expectations, work experience requirements and study commitments of these two stages.

The Model Professional Experience Employment Contracts have been drawn up for the RIBA Education and Practice Departments by the HR legal advisory service, Workplace Law Network, and organisation with specialist expertise in advising architectural practices on HR issues. They cover:

• RIBA professional body expectations of employers of student and graduate professional experience employees;
• RIBA professional body expectations of students and post Part 2 graduates undertaking professional experience employment under the RIBA PEDR;
• Current HR legal requirements on employing staff in this capacity.

Please note, when working with these documents that it is vital for both students and their employing offices to recognise that they are issued by the RIBA as guidance only. Employers using the templates to draw up a contract covering a specific student or graduate employment are therefore strongly recommended to seek additional legal advice, as they would in the case of a general employment contract.

Used on this basis the model professional employment contacts will provide a helpful toolkit for employers - including both those with little experience of employing students during their professional experience, and those who want to ensure their established procedures and contracts conform with professional body and employment law requirements.

Often, if things go wrong, it is because of a mismatch of expectations between an employer and their student or graduate employee about the responsibilities and entitlements involved in professional experience employment. Issues such as study leave entitlement to attend courses, opportunities to broaden experience through 'unproductive' work, confidentiality and access to documents for their professional casework, and repayment of course fees when moving to another job, have all featured in the arguments that can sometimes arise.

Whether you are an employer or a student/graduate employee, we hope that the model contracts and their linked information on planning work and learning activities will help YOU to avoid these problems, and lay a successful foundation for your professional experience employment.

If you are already employing architecture students or graduates, or already working your way towards your Part 3 Examination, we hope that it will help you to make the most of the learning opportunities presented by your practice and achieve your goal successfully.

For students and graduates, the model contracts indicate expectations on professional conduct and confidentiality of practice information, and suggest ways to balance Part 3 course and examination fees paid by their employer with a agreed period of continued employment post-Part 3

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3. Arranging Professional Experience Employment

Professional experience employment enables students and graduates to learn from observing and participating in architectural practice, and to develop professional skills by working under the supervision of experienced architects. As with any employment, a clear job description and a mutually agreed contract of employment will help to ensure that all involved are clear about the commitments they are making and the responsibilities that they involve.

• Example professional experience job profiles
• Time off in lieu of overtime
• 'Part 3' Professional Casework

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4. Does your practice have the resources to support student employment?

Employing students and graduates during their mandatory periods of professional experience can bring benefits to both the student and their employer, but will require time and commitment to ensure it is successful. The model contracts and professional experience matrix should help offices in deciding to offer professional experience employment, but other questions they need to ask are:

• Do we have someone in the staff team who can act as Professional Experience Mentor for student and graduate employees? The responsibilities have changed somewhat from the days of the old monthly tick box log sheets. To check what they involve see Duties and Responsibilies of the Employer

• Can we afford to pay current student salaries? Salary levels should reflect both the costs to the office of supervising and mentoring student and graduate employees, and the abilities a student or graduate contributes to the office. Students and Graduates will have fresh ideas and abilities requiring development in the workplace. Although they might not "pay" in the first few weeks, in most cases they will be worth more than their pay towards the end of their stay in the office.

  There are no RIBA recommended professional experience employment salary scales, but the RIBA supports the minimum salary levels set out by the architecture student organisation: ARCHAOS for Stage 1 (Year Out) students and these are listed in the RIBA Policy on pay and conditions for Stage 1 students

  An indication of average salary levels for post-Part 2 graduates during professional experience employment can be found in the regularly updated "salaries" section of www.riba-jobs.com. Employers who are not able to match these salary levels should think very seriously about offering student and graduate employment. Bear in mind that students enter professional experience employment carrying a heavy burden of student debt. If they are forced to make up an inadequate salary by taking on other evening work it is likely that both the quality of both their learning and their work in practice will suffer - a situation where no one will benefit.

• Will we offer other financial support? Who pays costs such as: Part 3 course and examination fees payable towards the end of Stage 2 professional experience; 'Year Out' recall day fees payable during Stage 1 of professional experience; and the Professional Experience & Development Record monitoring fee now charged by most architecture schools, should be decided between individual employers and their student/graduate employees. Such agreements can then be included in the contract drawn up between the office and the student/graduate at the beginning of their employment.

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5. Activities that will broaden professional experience - or how to make the most of learning opportunities in your practice.

In clause 16 of both contracts there is reference to providing opportunities for students to learn by observing on projects or activities where they are not 'productively' employed, but which will 'broaden their professional experience'. Both the PEDR and the model contracts refer to a maximum number of hours/days that employers should expect to allow for this type of 'on the job' learning through observation.

In the past the RIBA has issued brief general guidance on this subject, in terms of allowing students during Stage 1 Professional Experience opportunities to 'shadow' more senior employees, and to learn by accompanying them on visits to sites or by sitting in on site and client meetings. At Stage 2 Professional Experience, where graduates are developing their professional experience towards the Part 3 Professional Practice Examination, 'learning through observing' might involve expanding on their own 'hands on' contract running experience by sitting in on meetings for other projects.

Further information on the range of professional experience activities appropriate to Stage 1 and Stage 2 of professional experience, and whether this might be as a 'participant' or an 'observer', is now provided as a guidance matrix of professional experience and development activities designed to help employers and students make the most of the learning activities provided by their practice. The aim help practices to support student development through professional experience employment, whilst avoiding activities beyond their level of competence.