Employing Students
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Duties and Responsibilities of the Employer
During professional experience, whilst the status of the student is that of an employee first and foremost, the office should also create an environment where the student can learn new skills and develop his/her professional abilities within a structured setting.
As a guide, there are four undertakings that should be regarded as setting a minimum standard when engaging a student completing professional experience:
- To give a student reasonable opportunities to gain an adequate breadth and depth of experience from the range described in the Professional Experience and Development Scheme.
- To nominate an experienced architect (or other professional in non-architectural work settings), who will be personally responsible for directing the student's work, and supervising and guiding the student's professional experience so that the range, quality and depth of activities undertaken shall be such as to satisfy the objectives of professional experience. This person is known as the Employment Mentor.
- Stage One Professional Experience: To allow 6 paid working days in total for professional activities which have the educational objective of broadening the student's professional experience and up to 4 days paid leave in total for attendance at Stage One study/recall days at the student's school of architecture. This will be matched by an equivalent amount of the student's own unpaid time to broadening their professional experience.
Stage Two Professional Experience: To allow 10 paid working days in total for professional activities which have the educational objective of broadening the student's professional experience and 10 working days paid leave in total for attendance at Part Three courses and examinations. Not more than 10 paid working days to be taken in one calendar year. - To sign, date and comment upon the student's professional experience and development record in a fair, accurate and timely manner at the end of each 3-month period of professional experience.
The following table describes what is expected of the Employment Mentor, with support from the office, during a student's professional experience, and what you can expect from the student in return for providing a suitable work placement.
Duties and Responsibilities of the Employment Mentor
| You are responsible for: | In addition, you must: | You can expect the student to: | |
| a | establishing an organisational framework which will facilitate the provision of high quality professional experience | comply with the code of professional conduct set by the RIBA | |
| b | overseeing the educational and professional development of the student in the work place, supervising his/her daily work and reviewing the student's achievements for each professional development period | provide the student employee with a detailed job description and contract of appointment providing information about hours of work, the time allocated for study and opportunities for educational and professional development | take responsibility for their own learning, so that by the end of their period of professional experience the student will be ready to accept the responsibilities of a registered architect and continue with CPD |
| c | ensuring that the student employee is not overburdened by responsibilities inappropriate to his/her experience, or overwhelmed by tasks of limited or repetitive educational value | ensure safe working arrangements for the student employee and proper supervision of the student at all times, including arrangements for cover in times of absence | contribute fully to, and take responsibility for, his/her own work within the office, subject to supervision by the Employment Mentor |
| d | discussing with the student employee at the start of each 3-month period of professional experience, the work objectives and learning opportunities within that period | sign, date and comment on the student's achievements for each 3-month period of professional experience, within a reasonable time frame (not unreasonably withholding permission to include work produced in the office to supplement the PEDR) | complete the professional experience and development record in a fair, open and timely manner, agreeing with you in advance the inclusion of any material generated in the office |
| e | providing systematic professional training which should include first hand experience of a range of general procedures and tasks as well as some which are speciality specific | ensure that the student employee is obtaining the necessary experience of practical procedures and contractual arrangements to compliment studies for the Part 3 Examination | |
| f | ensuring that the student employee is not routinely expected to undertake tasks of no educational value or required to work hours that are in excess of their contract. | facilitate and encourage the students attendance at professional practice Part 3 programmes. | not undertake a task for which they have not been adequately prepared. |
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