26th February 2008, 02:04 PM
Steven
As far as I'm aware there is far more to being a Chartered Architect than just the annual fee!! Using an example of pharmacy (which I know is a very different discipline) all pharmacists are required to take a professional exam, after undertaking a 4 year Master of Pharmacy degree and at a least a year in supervised training in the workplace. They are then required to undertaken a certain amount of training every year for the rest of their career for CPD purposes. If this does not happen the are not able to re-register and so cannot continue to practice as a pharmacist. Similar systems are common in many other professions eg chartered surveyors (although its 2 years training for them). It would and should be possible to stop non-chartered archaeologists working just as you can't work as a doctor, pharamcist, architect etc if you are not registered with the professional body.
My view is that when the IFA goes down the chartered route, as it undoubtedly will, it could do a lot worse than looking at these institutes. All corporate memberships (PIFA, AIFA and MIFA) would be chartered and in order to practice in commercial archaeology you would have to be chartered. The only exception would be if you are a trainee out of university but there would have to be some sort of limit (as in other professions) on the type of work they can undertake. There would also have to be a pathway for trainees, similar to say the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence, which would be fully administered by the IFA, and companies/units would have to be prepared to pay for.
As far as I'm aware there is far more to being a Chartered Architect than just the annual fee!! Using an example of pharmacy (which I know is a very different discipline) all pharmacists are required to take a professional exam, after undertaking a 4 year Master of Pharmacy degree and at a least a year in supervised training in the workplace. They are then required to undertaken a certain amount of training every year for the rest of their career for CPD purposes. If this does not happen the are not able to re-register and so cannot continue to practice as a pharmacist. Similar systems are common in many other professions eg chartered surveyors (although its 2 years training for them). It would and should be possible to stop non-chartered archaeologists working just as you can't work as a doctor, pharamcist, architect etc if you are not registered with the professional body.
My view is that when the IFA goes down the chartered route, as it undoubtedly will, it could do a lot worse than looking at these institutes. All corporate memberships (PIFA, AIFA and MIFA) would be chartered and in order to practice in commercial archaeology you would have to be chartered. The only exception would be if you are a trainee out of university but there would have to be some sort of limit (as in other professions) on the type of work they can undertake. There would also have to be a pathway for trainees, similar to say the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence, which would be fully administered by the IFA, and companies/units would have to be prepared to pay for.