Architects Registration Board of Victoria (ARBV) is a self-funding statutory authority which is responsible for the registration of architects, the approval of architectural companies/partnerships, the investigation of complaints against architects and the provision of  of a tribunal inquiry into professional conduct and accreditation of architecture courses.

There are around 1600 members of the ARBV.  And unlike member associations where members join voluntarily, architects must register with the ARBV in order to be a practising architect.

Alison Ivey is the Registrar at the Architects Registration Board of Victoria (ARBV).  Having previously worked as a secondary school teacher, Alison brings an interesting perspective to training adult staff.  We chat to Alison to find out some of the challenges that the ARBV needs to consider when training a large group of professional architects.

1.      What are the challenges when running a registration board?  What are the implications of those challenges?

Alison: For the ARBV, even though registration is mandatory, we do try to keep architects informed of things that they need to know, and act as quickly and professionally as we can in response to enquiries, aiming to make all of our processes easy and efficient. In other words, we aim to be less bureaucratic and more customer relations focused.

A voluntary association always has to address the issue of whether members continue to find the benefits of membership outweigh the cost and time involved. Ensuring this requires vigilance and good customer management systems.

2.      What are the challenges when training members?

Alison: Training for adults is usually tied to incentives and motivation. A culture of valuing learning and up skilling is of vital importance both within an association and in the workplaces of members which is set and modelled by managers.  If managers don’t want to learn, no one else will want to either.

If training programs are mandatory, implying that the organization regards them as essential, attention should be paid to how well the programs are delivered and the retention rates of the information or skill taught. Follow up surveys and tests provide good information, and also reinforce the importance of the training to the association in the members’ minds.

If the training is voluntary, but recommended, the managers of the association should make it as easy as possible to do, ensure it is interesting, worthwhile, and well delivered, and above all is seen as value for money/time taken.

All of this is common sense. The most important step in adult learning to my mind though is the pretest, and this is often overlooked entirely.

A pretest establishes what is already known, enabling the trainer to determine where the learning is most needed. In addition, the pretest has the huge benefit of engaging the learner from the outset, and increasing the understanding and retention of the material covered.

3.      What training projects have you found to be the most successful in reaching out to members?  What worked/what didn’t?

Alison: People will always want to learn useful, relevant things. Changes in technology, best practice, regulations, and legal decisions will attract good interest as long as the delivery is thought through.  Is on-line delivery appropriate and engaging? Is face to face better?   If so, date, day and time are crucial issues.

What projects get the best recognition from employers/the public/colleagues? What projects coincide with current developments and demand? What projects will sell the service the best and improve profitability?

4.      What tips would you recommend to other associations when it comes to engaging members with training?

Alison: Employ trainers with a sense of humor, who are polished and entertaining presenters.  There is nothing worse than being bored, in fact, boredom is counterproductive to learning. Adults get very resentful of time wasting, can become entrenched in a cynical approach to work place training, and can even develop learning “sulks” where their minds are completely closed to new material as a result of previous, negative experiences.  School students manage this in many different ways, but adults are out of the school habit.  Trainers cannot take their audience’s interest for granted.

Learning is a human activity usually reliant on a relationship. The fastest way of establishing a rapport with an audience is to make them laugh.

5. What is an example of some training that has worked well for the ARBV?

We needed to explain Compulsory Professional Development to our members, as we have been considering introducing it.  A CPD video was created to simplify quite complex information and present it in a clear and logical way.  It’s a short video, but very comprehensive. Architects are visual learners and, like most of us, tend not to be good at reading large chunks of text.  We introduced the concept of CPD in an innovative video format that no other jurisdiction in Australia had done before.  It resulted in our members more easily accepting the proposed CPD concept and ensured that the meetings were pleasant and ran smoothly.