Rich Newsome
Updated June 2021. To view the original post, click here.
Many key members of your target audience will be chartered members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
As you’ll be aware, The RIBA is a professional body for architects who are primarily based in the UK. Members of the institute will have obligations to fulfil, including allotting a set number of hours to the undertaking of CPD each year.
In this post, we take a closer look at the RIBA CPD requirements and uncover what this means for your building product business.
Read on…
RIBA CPD For Architects: The Specifics
As a building product manufacturer, it’s useful to understand exactly what architects need to do in order to fulfil those all-important CPD obligations. This will help to align your CPD to the aims set out by The RIBA, giving you ultimate chances of getting your CPD approved.
At a glance:
- Architects should undertake a minimum of thirty-five hours of CPD a year. This equates to around 45 minutes per week.
- Of these thirty-five hours, twenty of them should be based on the ten topics highlighted in the RIBA Core Curriculum. More on this later.
- Architects will need to acquire at least 100 learning points. These reflect their own assessment of what they got out of the activity.
- Architects should record and keep track of their CPD activities using the RIBA recording service.
In essence, this means you need to provide value with your CPD. The better the CPD, the more ‘learning points’ it will receive.
Should I Get My CPD RIBA Approved?
Getting your building product CPD RIBA approved isn’t mandatory, but there are certain benefits to be had, including:
- Promotion on the RIBA CPD website
- The ‘kudos’ associated with having a RIBA-approved CPD
- The peace of mind that your CPD is effective
- Increased chances of specification
- A RIBA-approved CPD is worth double points to architects
However, in getting your CPD RIBA approved, you will have to overcome certain hurdles along the way, which we address in this post.
In short, you should ensure:
- Your CPD includes statutory & regulatory compliance
- You discuss health & safety and wellbeing
- Sustainability is mentioned
- Inclusivity is mentioned
- Discuss, in-depth your product application and usage
- Any long-term maintenance issues
- Fire safety
Alongside this, you cannot, in any way, appear to be biased towards your product. Nor should you criticise other applications. The RIBA takes a firm stance against this, which is why you should be as objective as possible. You shouldn’t use your CPD as a sales pitch; rather a means of educating architects on the challenges that your solution can help overcome.
Joining The RIBA CPD Providers Network
If you want your CPD RIBA approved, you have to be assigned to the RIBA CPD Providers Network.
The RIBA CPD Providers Network consists of over 500 manufacturers and suppliers, training companies and advisory organisations, who provide RIBA-approved CPD, to architects and other specifiers.
If obtaining approval, your CPD will be subjected to rigorous assessment by the RIBA and will be worth double CPD points to RIBA chartered architects.
You’ll also receive a shiny RIBA CPD Providers Network logo that can be used on your CPD and promotional materials.
What Is The CPD Core Curriculum?
As previously stated, 20 hours (of the 35-hour requirement) must relate to the CPD Core Curriculum and this is split into ten topics.
The ten topics are:
- Architecture for social purpose
- Health, safety and well being
- Business, clients and services
- Legal, regulatory and statutory compliance
- Procurement and contracts
- Sustainable architecture
- Inclusive environments
- Places, planning and communities
- Building conservation and heritage
- Design, construction and technology
It stands to reason that many building product manufacture’s CPDs would tackle at least one – if not more - of these curriculum areas.
How To Create A RIBA CPD For My Building Product Business
It’s common for building products to deliver CPD in webinar format, particularly given the rise in remote and distance working over the past year and a half.
A RIBA CPD, however, will require you to take a different approach.
Since it will be hosted on the RIBA website, your CPD should be made accessible at all times, to allow users to enrol whenever they want. In other words, it should be ‘on demand’.
That’s not to say that RIBA CPDs are exclusively on demand, however. Seminars and factory tours can also be used, but the process for approval will be slightly different.
Creating an On-Demand RIBA CPD
The fundamentals are fairly simple. You should design a presentation that conveys information in a clear and accessible format.
You may then consider getting a voice over to provide narration throughout the CPD.
This will then need to be converted to a video format before being submitted to RIBA.
Some important things to note in regard to this are:
- Your presentation should look professional; your branding should be on point.
- You will need to write a script if using voice over.
- A voice over artist should be considered.
- Video should include intro/outro slides, smooth transitions and perhaps even music.
For many building product manufacturers, it’ll be difficult to achieve all this in-house without it becoming time consuming and costly. That’s why it’s strongly recommended that you outsource this process to a team of experts who’ll help:
- Design
- Build
- Write, and;
- Edit
… Your CPD. Talk to us for more info.
RIBA Architects Assign Their Own Points
As mentioned previously, RIBA CPDs are self-reflected, meaning that architects are encouraged to reflect on their own practice and the professional impact of each CPD activity. This is based on a series of ‘learning points’ that architects will give to each CPD.
The points range from one to four – one meaning they learnt very little and four meaning they became experts afterwards.
The ‘four-point worthy’ CPDs are normally ones that take a couple of days to complete.
How Can Insynth Help You With Your RIBA CPD?
A RIBA CPD is a great way for building product manufactures to deliver something of value. However, getting your CPD approved can be quite a complex process. This should be closely considered before making the decision to gain RIBA approval.
At Insynth, we can help you to create a highly-effective, well-structured digitised CPD session in-line with the RIBA CPD requirements. If you’d like any more information on how we can transform your CPD, allowing you to gain trusting relationships, promote your expertise and ultimately – increase specification, talk to an expert at Insynth today.
To help write this post, I acknowledge architecture.com who provided plenty of useful information.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
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