Independent Commission on Professional Practical Experience (PPE Commission)

The independent Commission on Professional Practical Experience (PPE Commission) was established in February 2024 by the Architects Registration Board (ARB). It was been commissioned at a time of change in the architectural practice, in architecture education and a wide variety of both challenges and opportunities. The rapid acceleration of technology, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI, the urgent and unavoidable climate crisis and net-zero-compatible goals, and the outputs of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 Report setting out an extensive change agenda for all those working in building design and construction.

The changes over recent years have coincided with the Architects Registration Board review of how architects are trained and educated, the outcomes at the end of initial education and training, and clearer definitions of what architects are expected to know and do and how they should behave. It is these changes that have defined the context for the work of the PPE Commission and the connections between them for example;

"the combination of the demands of the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report, the significance of architects to society and priorities like the trajectory to net-zero mean that it is important that architects can work across the Academic and Practice Outcomes defined by ARB. The Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report means that there is a premium on ensuring that the architecture profession is equipped, by virtue of its own diversity, to understand and meet the needs of a diverse population. The transition to outcomes-based regulation, together with society’s expectations of the profession from the point of registration, mean that it is essential that professional practical experience is used as effectively as possible, and that those who undertake it gain the most they can for the next stage of their careers and their registration as an architect. Throughout our work we have been aware of these multiple demands on the training of new architects as they work towards this point, and on the profession"

Drawing from a wide range of evidence, and considering many differing views on of the issues the commission believes that change is necessary, and it is time for the ARB, learning providers and the profession to shape a more inclusive, more flexible, and more effective set of arrangements. There needs to be a more coherent approach to training, society needs to see a more diverse architecture profession, and new architects need a better deal.

As of 2025 the commission is made up of:

• Chair Architect Academic: Professor Sir Chris Husbands
• Felicity Atekpe Associate Professor and Director of Practice and Design of Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA), University College London.
• Peter Barker an architectural technologist by background, partner at Ryder Architecture and Founding director of BIM Academy.
• Polly Mackenzie Chief Social Purpose Officer at UAL, having previously served as Chief Executive of Demos

This text is paraphrased and quoted from Professional Practice Experience Commission Final report Submitted to the Architects Registration Board in March 2025.

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