Episode 18:
Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast.
The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about where you can do your Part 3 course, the different types of courses available and the submission requirements.
After speaking with a few of you it was made apparent that it wasn’t very unclear where you can study Part 3 and the different formats the Part 3 course can have depended on where you study.
So I’d first like to recommend you read the Part 3 Handbook which sets out everything you need to know about the course, you can find this on Amazon or the RIBA Books website.
Now let’s first start with what the required submitted material is and then move on to what type of course formats there are and then which university offers what type.
All schools of architecture offer the course part-time in the sense that you won’t need to attend lectures every week since the course is aimed at working around you working full time in practice since you need to have a live project to base your case study on. There are intensive programmes which last a few months or lengthier ones lasting up to a year.
So when it comes to the submission requirements, these typically consist of:
Not all architecture schools require all of these for the submission, some Schools don’t have Coursework or might base the majority of the submission on coursework.
Starting with everyone’s favourite, The Professional Experience Development Records also known as the beloved PEDR sheets are as you records of your experience in practice and you need to have a minimum of 24 months recorded which I recommend you try and be up to date with so you remember what you did and worked on for each 3-month record – I know it’s easier said than done but it will save you so much heartache when you come to put them together for your Part 3 submission. If you are looking to do your Part 3 later in your career, examiners typically prefer if you do your last 12 month PEDR sheets leading up to the submission so they have a more accurate view of what you are working on at that time and your extent of knowledge.
If you’re not sure how the PEDR process works, it typically consists of 3-month records where you have the opportunity to expand on what you are working on either project related or maybe management related and you should provide a relatively detailed description of how you are developing professionally through what you are learning in the workplace and how you intent to apply it moving forward and how it will benefit you in your career development and as a professional. These are then read and singed by your practice mentor, this can be your manager for example, or someone who is qualified and works directly with you so they can provide detailed comments and recommendations on your progress. Once your practice mentor signs them, you then send these on to a Professional Studies Advisor, this individual will be provided from your university where you did your Part 2 or if you are completing them during the Part 3 course, then someone from the Part 3 course will be your Professional Studies Advisor. You need both individuals’ signatures to be able to submit them as your formal submission for Part 3.
Something examiners might not take well to is if you have too many hours on just one RIBA Work Stage, say for example on RIBA Work Stage 2 & 3 on planning because they will feel you haven’t had enough breadth of experience on the later work stages when it comes to tender and mobilisation. So, if you are experiencing this make sure you speak to your practice about getting you involved on a project on site so you get the full experience of a projects cycle. This will also help with your case study.
The next item of the submission is your Curriculum Vitae or as you most commonly know it your CV. This is simply to give examiners a quick insight of your career to date. So aim to include a summary of your education and work experience and also maybe outline your interests. Set it out so it follows a chronological order of your achievements and keeps a simple timeline. This will typically be a reinforcing document next to your PEDR’s so make sure it complements and reaffirms the PEDR’s, so it might not be a typical CV you would send an employer, it’s more to show your career progression similar to the PEDRs. And avoid using the word ‘architect’ for example Part 3 Architect, this will not go down well with the examiners as you’re using a protected title you haven’t obtained yet, so stick to architectural assistant and a true reflection of your titles.
Then you have your Career Appraisal Document. This is essentially another piece of evidence reinforcing your PEDR Sheets and CV in demonstrating your professional development. Within your career appraisal you typically record your architectural, educational and professional development, you could potentially very briefly talk about your younger years and how that lead you to architecture if it’s relevant but try and not dwell on it too much, then you can go on to discuss your Part 1 studies, your year out experience, then moving onto your Part 2 studies and then Part 2 professional experience in the work place highlighting what you learned from each experience and how they informed your development as a professional. This document also provides a good opportunity to demonstrate how you meet the Part 3 Criteria through your experience and development and maybe expand a bit on your most recent experiences within the practice and on projects.
Under the Part 1 studies you can mention what influenced your choice of architectural school, your experiences during the course and how it affected you in continuing onto the next steps of your architectural career. How did you find the course, what did you achieve, what didn’t work so well? No comment is a bad comment, be honest and open and that will just reinforce your experience.
Then for your year out experience, you should describe how you found the workplace and the experience, what you learned, the type of work you did and the support the office gave you. You should also mention the type of projects and work stages you worked on and how much responsibility you were given. If you had any correspondence with other members of the construction industry and how you found it and what you learned from the experience.
Similarly, to your Part 1 studies you should expand on similar elements when it came to your Part 2 studies, did you undertake them full-time or part-time whilst also working in practice? How was that experience and how challenging did you find studying and working at the same time? How did you find Part 2 in comparison to Part 1? What worked better for you or what didn’t work as well? Did you choose a different architecture school for your Part 2 studies? What was the reason? Again, simply reinforcing and expanding on your growth and learning experiences.
Then you expand on your Part 2 experience. Remembering this is the most important part of your career appraisal as it is the most recent and most relevant reflection of your most recent knowledge gain, responsibility and work-based learning. Demonstrate how you’ve grown from your Part 1 experience and show how your knowledge in professional, contractual and regulatory matters has grown and informed your current ways of tackling matters. Maybe also describe how the practice from Part 1 differs if you are working in a different place. Have you taken on more responsibility on projects? Have you had a more rounded experience on the work stages?
And finally, you can make reference within your appraisal to the future, what are your next steps post qualification? Mention any short term or even long-term goals you have and where you would like to be in your career moving forward. Are there any additional courses you want to do? The Principal Designer course for example? Make sure you know the details because the examiners might ask you about it, that’s what they did to me and thankfully I remembered the details!
Also make sure to make reference to other pieces of your submission such as the PEDR sheets to show how one informs and reinforces the other and try to be accurate and consistent with your timelines and experience as the examiners will be cross referencing the documents including the CV.
Now moving on to the Case Study, as I mentioned a very small number of architecture schools might not have the Case Study as part of their submission criteria but it is most commonly used by most schools. The case study is typically based on a project you are currently working on or maybe it’s a project you recently completed, examiners typically prefer more recent projects but you can still use older examples of course.
If you don’t have a project in mind you should speak to your practice on how they can support you and placing you on an appropriate project, ideally one where it is on site to demonstrate your understanding and involvement on later work stages as this is what examiners are most keen on seeing, if you have no construction experience from your case study project it’s very unlikely the examiners will accept it so make sure you choose the most suitable project. I would personally say to try and choose a project that’s had a few problems so you can expand on them and provide your understanding and solutions to them, showing how’ve appraised them and what lessons would you take away to avoid and improve on, on future projects. Your critical appraisal will be key on the Case study to demonstrate your professional, regulatory, contractual and management knowledge so provide context of the project but focus on expanding your critical appraisals as these are the sections that will demonstrate to the examiners what you know and how you handle different circumstances.
Write about the project summary, the office, the client and the appointment, the team structure, planning and any issues that came up from planning, CDM, Building Regs, procurement – building contract, budget, tendering process, contractor appointment, construction process, completion (if applicable) and any issues you may have encounter in the process, how were they resolved? Do you agree? Would you have done anything different or added? And the finish off with your conclusions and recommendations/lessons learnt for future projects.
And then to reinforce those documents, some architectural schools have coursework and written examinations, others just have written examinations and no course work. The ones that offer both typically have the exams to be taken over a few hours and broken into two papers to be taken in one or days and this can typically be open book with material you can take with you that you can refer to, to help you put together your answers. The courses that don’t have coursework, the exams are typically spread across 3 days – 2 days for the exam paper itself and one day to do the finishing touches, such as spelling mistakes and printing and posting your submission, this is typically undertaken in the office and you can use online resources alongside your own material to assist with your answers.
Both the coursework and examination set out key questions on the various legislation you learn throughout the Part 3 course and material we are expected as architects to be aware of, such as questions on CDM, planning, copyright, building procurement, contracts, heritage and so on. My advice on the exams is try to write something on all of them and try and be strict with your time, so estimate how much time you need to go through all questions and try and stick to the time so you answer all of them as much as you can. Better to give some answer than nothing at all as you will still gain marks on what you wrote. Inside tip, I did the three-course exams course and before the exam I solved a few past practice papers and I had the answers with me in case I could use any parts of the answers to speed up the process which was very helpful. Also make sure you have your templates for emails, memos, reports, fees and programmes ready from before so you again save yourself valuable time you could use in answering the questions.
You usually receive a scenario just before the exam so you can roughly prepare for the potential questions you might be asked and compile the relevant information accordingly. The examiners acknowledge that we can’t possibly remember all the information that we need to know as architects that’s why they allow the ‘open book’ so you can draw on different resources to compile your answers as this is what you would have done anyway in a real practice scenario with a client.
And moving onto the final element of the course, the interview. You can see the interview as a ‘second’ chance to reinforce some of your answers from the exams for example, because the examiners will be expecting you to have gone back through your submission and they may ask you which parts would you have done different or want to add to? And you then guide them to a subject you want to expand and say after reviewing the information you would have added, this and this to the answer. The examiners do try to help you if you get stuck on a question by reframing the question or giving you some additional information so don’t panic if you’re not certain about something, you are not expected to remember everything. They simply want to see how you respond and handle situations and how you apply your professional knowledge to certain situations. If they feel you are lacking in certain areas, they might ask you more questions on that subject to fill in the gaps from your written submission.
So, make sure you review your entire submission before the interview so you are consistent with your answers. You can even take a copy with you if you like and add post-its to key parts of the submission you want to discuss so you can refer to it quickly and efficiently in the interview without flicking through the submission, that would be unprofessional. Remember, the examiners do want you to pass and they will try and help you during the interview, just be prepared and you’ll be fine.
Now moving on to where you can study Part 3, currently there are 26 architecture schools that offer Part 3 , these might change every few years because they need to be re-validate by the ARB to be able to offer Part 3.These are typically listed on the ARB website, which I provided the link to in the episode notes. Some name their requirements slightly differently so I will outline which ones require something slightly different.
So the architecture schools that require you to submit everything PEDR’s, Career Appraisal, CV, Case Study, Exams, Coursework & Interview are:
Next are the architecture schools that require you to submit PEDR’s, Career Appraisal, CV, Case Study, 2-day office based exams & interview are:
And the others have slightly different requirements which is:
Most of them are covered over a 1 year period, except for ARCEX which more centred on when you are ready to finish all the elements at your own pace same as APEAS. The Architectural Association course is over a full 2-week intense course. Oxford Brookes University and RIBA North West Region are covered over 9 months and UCL is over 10 months.
I would of course advise you to research the schools you are interested in at your own time to understand their requirements better and what would work best for you. In terms of you acceptance, you simply need to have your Part 1 & Part 2 diplomas, marks don’t matter when enrolling for Part 3 so you can choose whichever architecture school you like that fits in with your needs.