I wrote a few time ago an article about the condition of young architects on Linkedin.
Young Architects – Not Good Enough to Design?
In many countries, including mine, a graduate student with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in architecture is not allowed to design and sign his/her architectural projects. This right is related to affiliation with a national organization such as AIA in the USA, or The Order of Architects in Romania, in my case.
The official excuse is that a young architect is not prepared to deal with complex professional work and responsibilities. The official excuse is that the final client is protected by an experienced architect.
In Romania, one of the issues is related to the ability of the architect to manage his firm/company. Architects are maybe the only social category that is restricted to operating their own limited company, as a person is not required even to grad from high school to have his/her own business.
The other issue is related to the ability of our younger colleagues to deal with building permits, even if a 16-32 class would be more than ok to learn everything one should know about this.
They Are Good Enough To Work As Interns
Yep! They have to complete a two years internship stage (in my country is 2 and after university 6). In a tough market after 2007-2008, there were just a few internship positions in architectural firms. In Romania, if an architect does not complete the internship during the first five years after graduation, the stage is even longer. So there are some of them offering them to work for no payment at all.
Let me be honest about it!
This is nothing about protecting the clients. This is nothing about teaching a person in 2 years, something that six university years failed to teach. It is just to protect the registered architects from the young competition. It is to provide a cheap, highly qualified workforce to established architectural design studios. It is hypocrisy.