“People in the profession should also teach, because there should not be this big gap between the student body and the profession, they are not necessarily two worlds…”
Dame Zaha Hadid, DBE RA
(Oxford Union, 2016)
Education does not end in school. Continuing education through practice and training transpire in the workplace though this may not necessarily be in a school with lists of requirements and exams. However, there must be something on the teaching methodology in school and how they are trained and expected to perform during their first job that exposes a gap as acknowledged by Arch. Hadid and other firms. To a skill and experience-based architectural profession, this gap could be filled through a mentor-apprentice model. Apprenticeship is not simply a first job but an on-the-job-training, and such should be treated like a program. Like in all programs, apprenticeship should include specific deficiencies that a mentor targets to assure best experience and learning of the mentee. If there is pedagogy in the classroom, there must also be a pedagogy in the apprenticeship, an approach to training our future architects.
This study is an attempt to bridge the known gap between architecture school and practice by identifying these gaps and exploring principles and practices in the apprenticeship program. The topics listed here are evolving along with educational reforms and progress in the profession.
Gaps or Inadequacies | Description or Examples |
3.1. Learning Gaps | |
3.1.1. Cognitive Rigidity* | Apprentice is rigid with preconceived learnings not open to adjustment, teachings and principles of mentor |
3.1.2. Recognizing Mentor** | Apprentice sees mentor as the sole source of learning; fails to recognize learning opportunities in working with allied professionals, co-consultants, and clients. |
3.1.3. Recognizing real design process** | Apprentice is not aware of the real design process, what it takes to complete a project design. |
3.1.4. Managing Expectations** | Apprentice has high expectations on practice of design, and often overthinking or over designing. |
3.2. Skills Gap | |
3.2.1. Basic Programs** | Apprentice needs to improve skill in basic programs like Autocad |
3.2.2. Visualizing | Apprentice is drafting without visualizing how it will be used or look at in reality; draftings instead of designing |
3.2.3. Gauging Eye* | Apprentice lacks assumption skills to identify discrepancy or differences in measurement, color, plumbness. |
3.2.4. Focusing Eye* | Apprentice needs to improve skills in being able to work efficiently or focus on a task. |
3.2.5. Bird’s Eye or Logical Eye* | Apprentice lacks overall managerial skills, identifying prerequisites, logical organization of tasks or priorities – the big picture. |
3.2.6. Editing or Critical Eye* | Apprentice lacks skill in identifying errors or red flags in a plan (drawings or details) or documents (specifications, budgets, timelines, or quotations). |
3.2.7. Eye for Aesthetics* | Apprentice needs to develop skills in taste, knowing what will look good in actuality and will look timeless. |
3.3. Working Gap | |
3.3.1. Experience and Exposure Gap** | Apprentice lacks experience if not range of experience from office/studio to construction site/field. |
3.3.2. Communication Gap** | Mentor or apprentice lacks verbal or written skills in conveying their thoughts, intents, instructions; leading to excessive clarifications, confusion, or miscommunication. |
3.3.3. Collaborative Gap* | Apprentice finds difficulty in working with a partner or a group. |
3.3.4. Independence Gap* | Apprentice finds difficulty working independently and needs constant assistance from peers or mentors even in small tasks despite having solutions available to him/her. |
3.3.5. Business Gap** | Apprentice fails to adapt and take note of good business and managing practices in the planning of their own architectural career. |
3.4. Professional Gap | |
3.4.1. We are not in classroom anymore | Apprentice treats mentor as school teacher instead of a boss (e.g. submitting paper for mentor to check instead of apprentice double-checking himself/herself before presenting to a boss) |
3.4.2. Forget about Winning** | Apprentice sees the whole program as a requirement to fill hours and get signatures and apply for exams; rather than building his/her own learning, skills, and work experience in preparation for own professional practice. |
3.4.3. Professional Identity** | Apprentice absorbs and adapts mentor/s style and fails to make his/her own mark and sound judgement especially in his/her own projects. |
Sources:
* Professional experiences; and
** Essays, research, and criticisms on apprenticeships and accounts from other firms.
It is therefore the ultimate goal of an apprenticeship program to identify and find new ways to fill the variety of gaps discussed and new gaps that may arise.
For apprentices, this goal in the apprenticeship program would help mold their professional identity. Apprentices should enter their first job ready to be trained - open to mentorship. However, for motivation, I urge apprentices to look beyond establishing individual careers in the future but on the bigger picture - building competency in the professional community by providing quality design service to clients and mentoring of future apprentices.
For architect-mentors, the goal is likewise beyond strengthening expertise in your individual practices. As late Arch. Hadid once said, "education is a reciprocating experience" (Oxford Union, 2016), and as we learned, education continues after the classroom. At the end of every career, every life, what matters is the meaning (Oprah, 2014), and life meaning cannot be just making your offices/practices more efficient and profitable. Life's meaning is defined by the very people you touch (M. Angelou, 2014) - your legacy.
Learn more about this journal written for Philippine Women's University Masters of Fine Arts and Design by requesting for the full document
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