> What is AIA/CES?
> What is Mandatory Continuing Education?
> Eight Ways to Participate
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What is AIA/CES?

It is a continuing education system developed by the AIA to emphasize and record participation in professional learning activities. AIA/CES enables architects to keep current, master new knowledge and skills, plan for the future, and responsibly meet the role society entrusts to a professional. The program also allows members to fulfill a requirement for AIA membership and meet any state mandatory continuing education requirement. In this role, the program has the potential to be a primary force in the improvement and revitalization of our profession.

What is Mandatory Continuing Education?

Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) is education required by a state to retain licensure. Each state has the legal right to establish its own guidelines and requirements. However, most states’ requirements are similar, whether they require architects to meet them annually or biannually. If you, like the average AIA member, have four or more state licenses, you must meet the continuing education requirements for all the states in which you intend to practice.

Most states that require MCE will accept AIA/CES transcripts as documentation for completion of valid continuing education credit. For AIA members, this means that our single record-keeping system is the documentation needed for reporting your state MCE requirements when requested. We do, however, strongly suggest that you keep backup documentation of your activities as support, especially if the credit is self-reported activity as it may be requested.

Illinois has instituted MCE in conjunction with the biannual license renewal cycle. Our state requires 24 hours of learning (what the AIA calls "LU"), 16 of which must be in public protection subjects (what the AIA calls "HSW"). Click here to read Illinois’complete MCE rules.

Eight Ways to Participate

1. Attend programs offered by a CES Registered Provider, such as AIA Chicago and a growing list of companies, associations, community colleges and universities. Registered Providers automatically report your learning units to the AIA’s record-keeper. See this site’s Calendar of Events section for upcoming programs sponsored by AIA Chicago.

2. Participate in structured programs (i.e., classes, lectures, conferences and seminars) offered by organizations that are not registered providers, and use a Self-Report Form to tabulate and report your learning units.

3. Report your own self-designed study. This would include completing research for a client’s project, preparing to teach a class or give a lecture, studying The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice published by AIA, or any kind of self-study in which you are learning something that relates to the practice of architecture. Periodically tabulate and report the learning units you’ve earned using the Self-Report Form.

4. Read the CES-certified articles in Architectural Record. Take the corresponding question-and-answer quiz and complete the report form included in the magazine. Important note: only eight articles per year can count toward your annual requirement of 18 LU.

5. Take the AIA Trust Self-Assessment Tests.

6. Attend the AIA national convention and/or a national KC conference.

7. Study at your own convenience through NCARB’s Professional Development Program monographs and quizzes.

8.  Earn 2 hours credit (2 LU) hours per calendar year for Professional Community Service which includes volunteer service on committees, boards, and other projects that promote the architectural profession. Use the Self Report Form to report these hours. Note: these credits are not eligible for HSW.

Transcripts

Note that on February 17, 2009, AIA changed the login procedure for viewing transcripts. Your transcript can be found here.