How to Become A Licensed Architect In Canada

My video of How To Become A Licensed Architect in Canada is one of my popular videos in you tube. I get queries regularly from students and architects with an international background interested in getting  Canadian accreditation and license. I usually lead them to check the CACB website -
Canadian Architectural Certification Board. CACB is the first point of contact for graduates of architecture in Canada and abroad, who want to become licensed architects in Canada.

For an architect trained outside of Canada who are interested in becoming licensed in Canada,
there are 2 ways to go about it- it's either you go through an internship process and take the registration exams or you can try the BEFA, Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect Program.
The BEFA is a process where your experience will be evaluated  by the program, and their is an interview afterwards.

When I was looking into getting registered as an architect, the BEFA program did not exist at that time. There was no Canadian Exams at that time either. I went thru the internship process, gained experience and took the NCARB. NCARB had 9 exams at that time, it was a grueling and long process and it took me about 18 months to finish the exams. There was the LEED exam that I also took to become a LEED accredited professional, so I took 10 exams total.  Every other month or so I was going to the testing center and taking an exam and thankfully passed all of them. I am not sure if I can do that again- I always say to people I was younger then, and had the energy to hit the books and go through those tests. And honestly, I did not mind taking the exams even though I was already a Philippine licensed architect when I came to Canada. I figured it was a good way for me to learn the industry.

Another matter I would like to point out is the architecture industry, the knowledge and skills is based on a local setting, it is specific to where you are from. If you are new to Canada, or to any country for that matter- as an architect, you will have to retrain yourself in terms of the building code, design, building technologies. Quite a bit of learning curve. 

What I can provide is guidance for these aspiring architects, point you to the right direction and if you need help in gaining Canadian experience - I can give pointers as well. 

    



Location: Calgary, AB, Canada

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