Through Pathways to Practice, NCARB is developing a more accessible, future-focused licensure model while maintaining the rigor needed to protect the public. Following several years of researching and refining what competencies should be required for licensure, NCARB’s volunteers are now exploring how those competencies will be measured.
NCARB’s latest video on Pathways to Practice explains how our volunteer committees are working to understand the best individual methods of assessing the 16 competencies defined in the NCARB Competency Standard for Architects and evolving current licensure programs.
In 2025, the Licensure Process Research & Development Task Force handed off their research on the Competency Standard and a potential assessment model to NCARB’s Education, Experience, and Examination committees. Together, these committees are working to understand how to assess the 16 competencies beyond how we currently think of the three E’s.
“This work is very important,” said Joe Lucido, LEED AP, member of the FY26 NCARB Education Committee. “It’s putting down the foundation for future architects to grow into this profession.”
Instead of the current licensure process—which requires candidates to complete overlapping education, experience, and examination across competencies—the committees’ goal is to determine which assessment methods are appropriate at a competency-by-competency level and integrate them into the next generation of education, experience, and examination.
By expanding the number of pathways available to licensure candidates, NCARB is working to make licensure more accessible, regardless of candidates’ educational or professional backgrounds. Together, these committees are asking: “What do you truly need to do to become a licensed architect?”
Learn more about NCARB’s work to evolve architectural licensure.
