Episode 208 - ARB's Coorporate Strategy 2026-2030

This week we are going to discuss another of ARB’s latest updates on their proposed Corporate Strategy for 2026 to 2030 and what it means for practitioners, recent graduates and future candidates. This episode content meets PC1 - Professionalism & PC2 - Clients, Users & Delivery of Services of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Website:

• https://arb.org.uk/about-arb/arbs-business-plan/corporate-strategy-2026-30/ 
• https://arb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ARB-Corporate-Strategy-2026-30-Online-version.pdf 
• https://arb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ARB-Business-Plan-2026.pdf

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Transcript

Episode 208:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

The show designed to help Part 3 students kick-start their careers as qualified architects, while offering valuable refresher episodes for practising professionals.

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week relates to another of ARB’s latest updates on their proposed Corporate Strategy for 2026 to 2030 and what it means for practitioners, recent graduates and future candidates. Todays’ episode meets PC 1 & 2 of the Part 3 Criteria.

The key questions from todays episode is “How will this shape my route to registration, my day‑to‑day practice, and my responsibilities as an architect?”

Lets first explore why has the ARB developed this strategy and why now:

ARB frames this five‑year strategy against a backdrop of significant reform over the last corporate cycle. They highlight several changes you’ll already have encountered or will soon feel in practice, some which we covered in previous episode, these include:

• The new competency‑based requirements for initial education and training.
• A statutory CPD scheme for the profession.
• Implementation of recommendations to improve professional practical experience.
• A four‑year internal transformation programme due to complete in 2026.
• New mutual recognition agreements with regulators in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the US and Canada.

ARB’s vision is clear: regulation should be purposeful, operate in the public interest, and uphold confidence in the profession, while still being willing to change where necessary. They explicitly connect this to the unresolved system‑wide problems exposed in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report, deficits in competence, culture and accountability across the built environment sector.

They also place the strategy within wider pressures you will recognise:

• Economic challenges for practices and higher education providers.
• Shifts in demand on the profession, including building safety, climate change, emerging technologies such as AI, and changing demographics.
• And the need for more accessible, diverse routes into architecture that still maintain high standards.

Now, out of this context, ARB identifies three pillars that structure the whole Corporate Strategy 2026–30:

• Strengthening the education and training of future professionals.
• Upholding confidence and trust in the profession.
• Delivering modern, effective and efficient regulation.

Think of these as three lenses that will increasingly shape your Part 3 journey. How you are educated, how you are expected to behave and maintain competence, and how you interact with ARB as a regulator.

Strating with the first Pillar – Strengthening education and training of future professionals:

ARB’s first pillar is all about the pipeline into the profession and the standards that underpin registration. Their 2030 vision is that there will be a framework of education and training that is clearly understood by providers, accessible and supportive for students and trainees, and that equips future architects with the competencies they need to be successful and to practise safely.

They set out a few key ideas here:

First, they acknowledge that the profession is continually renewing itself. Experienced architects leave the Register, newly qualified architects join, bringing new skills and perspectives. ARB argues that the way we educate and train those new architects fundamentally shapes:

• How they approach design and complex ethical questions.
• How they work with peers and the public.
• The professional culture they help to create.

Over the last five years, ARB has already “modernised” initial education and training by reviewing competency outcomes, setting new standards for learning providers, and introducing a new accreditation model. The next five years are about embedding and evaluating those reforms, not constantly redesigning from scratch.

They link education strongly to societal challenges. The strategy makes it explicit that education must equip future architects to:

• Build a productive and economically successful profession.
• Address building safety.
• Respond to climate change.
• Work with emerging technologies.
• Operate in a changing, diverse society.

At the same time, ARB recognises that this is happening while universities face funding and structural pressures, and while there are concerns about the culture in which trainees gain their work experience, including the use of AI in study and assessment and the quality of professional environments.

So what does this look like in practice?

ARB’s five‑year vision for this pillar includes:

• A better experience of professional practical work for trainees, with clearer expectations and stronger links between providers and employers.
• More courses that integrate academic and practice‑based learning, with accelerated routes to registration.
• A more diverse range of routes into the profession, all of which maintain confidence in competence.
• Modernised competencies underpinning all education and training, so future architects can protect the public, deliver good quality built environments, and adapt to future change.
• Quality assurance processes that use data and evidence to monitor the quality of accredited courses.

They also set out a list of specific actions. Over 2026–30, ARB plans to:

• Evaluate their new accreditation model with input from providers and trainees.
• Evaluate the impact of education reforms by looking at access, attrition, and structured feedback.
• Support providers that want to develop new integrated qualifications or delivery models.
• Bring together education providers, practices and contractors to explore future roles and specialisms.
• Improve trainees’ practical experience through a coordinating role for providers, a new record for trainees to track and demonstrate experience, and detailed guidance.
• Evaluate demand for and feasibility of work‑based routes to registration in the UK, informed by international models and employer feedback.

So thats their five year vision for this pillar. In the immediate short term the set out in their 2026 Business Plan a sharper, near‑term view of this pillar. For this year, ARB has committed to:

• Continuing to embed the new education framework through evaluation of new applications and annual monitoring of outgoing qualifications.
• Completing the “Standards for Providers” dataset so that all providers are measured consistently in accreditation decisions.
• Implementing improvements to professional practical experience, including a new record of trainee experience.
• Publishing the findings of research on access to education and setting out an evaluation action plan.
• Beginning stakeholder engagement and research on work‑based routes to registration.
• Maintaining communication channels with providers.
• Commissioning stakeholder perception research and publishing proposals for enhanced involvement.

For Part 3 candidates, this means you should expect greater emphasis on clearly evidenced experience and an increasing alignment between what universities expect, what practices offer, and what ARB assesses at the point of registration. Candiates should also expect a policy conversation around alternative or work‑based routes that may, over time, change how some candidates reach the Register.

So those are the ambitions in the short and long term for Pillar 1 relating to strengthening the education and training of future professionals.

Now moving onto Pillar 2 which covers upholding confidence and trust in the profession:

The second pillar deals with culture, competence and public trust. The space where the Code, CPD and complaints live.

The ARB’s 2030 five year vision here is that competency levels are raised through a mature CPD scheme, stronger professional guidance, work to tackle poor workplace culture, and more efficient handling of architects who fall below required standards of conduct and competence.

The rationale is rooted in the impact of architecture on society. ARB stresses that architects shape environments that can last centuries, from housing to hospitals and transport hubs, and the public expects high levels of skill, safety and inclusive, respectful ways of working. Architects are seen as representatives of their profession, the integrity of that profession depends on shared standards of competence and behaviour, and the Register must be the definitive list of those who meet them.

ARB’s own research suggests that, from the public’s point of view, safety is non‑negotiable. Clients assume that architects are highly trained, safety‑conscious, and able to communicate clearly and listen to communities. The profession is also framed as internationally respected, and ARB wants regulation to support that reputation. For example, by making it easier for architects to export their services and by aligning international registration routes with the new UK education framework.

An important strand in this pillar is culture. ARB expressly acknowledges concerns about culture and behaviours in the profession, including discrimination and sexual misconduct, and states a desire to collaborate with architects and trainees to tackle these issues. At the same time, they link this to lessons from past failures and future challenges like the climate emergency and new technologies.

The key points from their five‑year vision for this pillar includes:

• A fully embedded CPD scheme, with evaluation of its impact on registrants.
• Use of aggregated CPD data to share insights on what the profession is doing and how it affects practice.
• Multiple and diverse routes into the profession that encourage access for competent professionals.
• Measurable shifts in workplace culture so people feel safer, more supported, and free from discrimination or sexual harassment.
• Improved trust in the sector through collaborative work with other bodies and decisive action on competence, particularly responding to the government’s post‑Grenfell agenda.

To achieve this, ARB sets out specific actions, such as:

• Publishing supplementary guidance and advice to support the Architects Code of Conduct and Practice.
• Promoting standards of conduct and competence so that architects and clients understand what is expected, and using this to drive competence and cultural change.
• Establishing new international routes to registration by simplifying assessment for candidates.
• Reviewing and updating mutual recognition agreements, broadening their scope where appropriate and exploring new agreements consistent with ARB’s principles.
• Leading the profession towards a more inclusive culture by delivering on four goals in their EDI strategy, with priorities including: Greater access to the Register for under‑represented groups and providing a more inclusive workplace cultures that remove barriers to progression. As well as ending discrimination and sexual harassment, supported by better data, resources for tackling discrimination, and collaboration with others such as the RIBA.

So thats their five year vision for this pillar. In the immediate short term again, the 2026 Business Plan translates this into concrete actions for this year to:

• Firslty, consult on, analyse and publish the third and final tranche of guidance documents that support the new Architects Code of Conduct and Practice.
• Promote expected standards and competence through various communication channels, explicitly to improve competence and culture.
• Establish a short‑life expert working group to consider the impact of AI on architecture and the role of professional regulation.
• Review and enhance the CPD scheme, using data on completion and communication impact to propose evidence‑based improvements.
• Develop an updated international agreements strategy to strengthen governance around future agreements.
• Complete the review of four mutual recognition agreements to broaden their scope and align them with ARB’s updated education and training requirements.
• Completing a review of the UK Adaptation Assessment and developing a new online module with an external partner.
• Progressing work to replace the Part 1 and Part 2 Prescribed Examination with a new single gateway assessment.
• Continuing EDI strategy implementation, including launching a census of registrants and publishing a resource hub for those experiencing discrimination.

For Part 3 candidates, this pillar means to expect CPD to be treated as a substantive regulatory tool, not an optional extra as well as anticipating a richer suite of ARB guidance documents that may inform how you answer Code‑related questions in exams and in practice. You should also be aware that issues like discrimination, workplace culture and use of AI are moving closer to the centre of regulatory attention, not sitting at the margins.

So those are the ambitions in the short and long term for Pillar 2 relating to upholding confidence and trust in the profession.

Now moving onto Pillar 3 relating to Delivering modern, effective and efficient regulation:

This third and final pillar turns the lens back onto ARB itself relating to how it works, how it uses data, and how it engages with technology and other regulators.

The ARB’s five year 2030 vision is that by the end of the period they will have:

• Completed the modernisation of their services to registrants.
• Worked in alignment with government and other regulators to improve culture, competency and safety.
• Developed the ability to use data to inform regulatory policy.

They emphasise their role as a statutory regulator, operating within the Architects Act, but express a desire to move beyond narrow debates about regulation as simply “burden” versus “freedom”. Their stated aim is that regulation should:

• Serve the public interest.
• Enable and encourage the profession to contribute its skills for the public good.
• Support consumer and market confidence.
• Underpin economic growth, rather than hinder it.

ARB also wants to position itself as a leader in regulatory innovation in the built environment, working with UK governments to tackle climate change, and to improve quality and safety. In terms of focus, they recognise the government’s challenge to regulators to demonstrate that work does not impose unnecessary burdens. ARB’s response is to be “more ambitious”, aiming for regulation that supports confidence and growth. Being a “modern regulator” for them means focusing on what works, evaluating impact and being willing to stop things that do not.

They also refer to significant investment in IT infrastructure that already allows architects to manage registration and CPD online, and they link this to an ambition to open routes to registration that prioritise enabling competent professionals rather than a risk‑averse default.

Their five‑year vision under this pillar includes:

• Using research and data analytics to drive regulatory work, and publishing that data to give insight into the “state of the sector.”
• Demonstrating efficiencies in operational processes, controlling costs and supporting long‑term financial sustainability.
• Delivering measurable improvements in how they engage operationally with architects, using a more “customer‑focused” approach.
• Reporting on environmental sustainability and demonstrating support for climate initiatives.
• Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion within ARB’s own organisation.
• Holding professionals to account and protecting the public through improved investigations and title investigations, using technology to increase efficiency.

So thats their five year vision for this pillar. In the immediate short term again, the 2026 Business Plan gives more immediate detail relating to:

• Conducting a review of investigations processes and proposing a new investigations model.
• Establishing an IT governance group for risk management and planning.
• Developing a data mechanism to create a single comprehensive source of mutual recognition agreement data.
• Developing and embedding a new performance monitoring framework and KPIs, reporting monthly.
• Creating assessment templates and review mechanisms so that appropriate impact assessments accompany key policies and systems.
• Carrying out stakeholder perception research to inform a comprehensive review of key stakeholder relationships.
• Expanding visits and talks to trainees to explain ARB’s role and future registration.
• Engaging with the relevant government department to contribute independent insight to built environment regulatory reform.
• Developing a sustainability policy and baseline metrics.
• Embedding learning and development strategies for staff, including leadership pathways.
• Continuing to develop the MyARB portal to improve how architects manage their registration.

For Part 3 candidates or practitioners, this third pillar means:

• Increasing digitisation of interactions with ARB.
• Potential changes in how investigations are handled, including use of technology and data.
• And more visible performance reporting and, potentially, more opportunities to feed back as a stakeholder.

So in general, what does the ARB’s five year vision and 2026 Business Case ambitions and targets mean for Part 3 candidates and practitioners:

To pull this together, it’s helpful to think about the strategy and the 2026 Business Plan in terms of their practical impact on Part 3 and early career.

From the education and training pillar:

• Candidates and practictioners can expect accreditation and competency language to become more prominent in how your Part 3 course is structured and assessed, because providers are being evaluated against new standards and a data‑driven accreditation model.
• Professional experience is likely to be more formally tracked and coordinated, including use of a trainee experience record aligned with ARB expectations.
• Conversations about alternative or work‑based routes may begin to reshape how some candidates progress, though that will depend on the outcome of ARB’s feasibility work.

From the confidence and trust pillar:

• CPD will sit in the foreground of regulatory practice, and the approach to lifelong learning will increasingly be framed by ARB’s scheme and guidance.
• The Code of Conduct and Practice will be supported by a growing body of guidance, and by 2026 ARB aims to have consulted on and published the final tranche of supporting documents, which may become essential reading for Part 3 preparation.
• Issues of culture, discrimination, and the use of AI are not peripheral: ARB is investing in EDI strategies, resource hubs, and expert working groups to address them.
• International mobility may be affected by changes in mutual recognition agreements and an updated international agreements strategy, which could matter if you are considering work abroad or if you trained internationally.

From the modern regulation pillar:

• Candidates and practitioners will increasingly interact with ARB through digital platforms like MyARB, including for registration management and CPD.
• Investigations processes may be redesigned, which has implications for how complaints, conduct and competence issues are handled and resolved.
• Expect to also see more engagement from ARB with trainees and practices, through visits, talks and stakeholder research, offering more chances to contribute your perspective.

Across all three pillars, the Corporate Strategy 2026–30 and the 2026 Business Plan show a regulator that is trying to balance public protection, professional standards, cultural change and economic realities, and that sees architects’ competence and culture as central to rebuilding trust after major sector‑wide failures.

The key takeaway for Part 3 candidates is that your future role as an architect is being framed not just in terms of technical competence, but also culture, ethics, inclusion, and your ability to continually adapt through structured learning. The ARB’s plans for 2026 and beyond are designed to hard‑wire those expectations into education, CPD, professional conduct and the way the Register itself is managed.

Let’s sum what we ran through today:

• ARB have officially released their Coorporate strategy for 2026-2030 outlining a four-year tranformation programme to promote public trust and integrity of the architect’s profession prioritising improvements in safety, competence and culture.
• One of ARB’s key focus areas is to embed new competency‑based education and improve the trainee experience, not redesigning the system again.
• The next phase of regulation will treat professional behaviour, inclusivity, and workplace culture as essential parts of architectural competence.
• CPD becomes a core regulatory tool. Continuous learning and transparent tracking will directly shape how competence and professionalism are judged in future.
• Digital, data‑driven regulation is coming. Expect more interaction with ARB through online platforms, measurable performance reporting, and evidence‑based policy.
• Part 3 is evolving with the system. The route to registration will increasingly align education, experience, and regulation emphasising ethics, adaptability and lifelong learning as much as technical skill.