Source: abcnews.com.ua
No one is born an architect and design engineer. It is impossible to become an architect and design engineer even after obtaining a graduate degree. A certificate on a specialist’s degree can be obtained after a candidate is specially trained and has a certain experience in design and architecture. This certificate is issued by the Certifying Architectural and Construction Commission. The same commission delegated a number of its functions regarding (training for) professional certification to self-regulatory organizations.
On the one hand, empowering professional non-governmental organizations is a positive thing confirmed by the successful world practice. But on the other hand, there are some specific aspects.
Let’s start with the certification procedure for construction specialists. To obtain a certificate on a degree in design and engineering, you should meet certain criteria, among which the main ones are education and work experience as well as provide a list of documents envisaged by the Law “On Architectural Activities”. However, when you apply to a self-regulatory organization with a bundle of documents prescribed by the law, you will find out that it is not entitled to give certificates to the specialists who are not among its members. So, you are offered on a mandatory basis to become a member of this non-governmental organization while paying annual membership fees and make a liability insurance contract with a defined insurance company.
The Soviet “voluntary-compulsory” principle is applied efficiently and comes at a price, while legal gaps lead to violations of the Ukrainian legislation and create a barrier for equal access of citizens to such a state administrative service as professional certification of performers of works (services). This defect of legal regulation should be eliminated as soon as possible. The relevant draft law No.7085 developed with the participation of our experts was registered in the Verkhovna Rada in early September last year.
In addition, the professional certification of responsible contractors as a mechanism to enter the market is limited to types of works based on the requirements for buildings and facilities, as defined by technical regulations. This does not allow to meet the market needs for various specialists. For example, the Ukrainian system does not provide for the possibility to train and certificate specialists in design and engineering of construction projects according to Eurocodes, engineers-designers of internal supply lines, etc., despite the fact that such a possibility is established by the law. Consequently, Ukrainian contractors can not prove their qualification and, as a result, be legally involved in the implementation of international projects. Such an approach constrains the domestic market, hinders the export of Ukrainian high-tech services with enormous added value and does not allow our engineers to be involved in cooperation with international investors dealing with designing facilities in Ukraine in accordance with international standards.
Thus, due to the lack of desire to develop the market from those who should do it, we lose the opportunity to integrate Ukrainian design and engineering services in the modern world while giving our own market to foreign specialists.
It is interesting that in Ukraine, employees can be certified in such a way even today. This issue is regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Accreditation of Conformity Assessment Bodies” and the ISO/IEC 17024 “Conformity Assessment – General Requirements for Certifying Bodies”. So, why do not we declare these voluntary certificates valid and enter their owners in the Register of Certified Persons?
Especially since Ukraine and Europe have reached the Agreement on Mutual Acceptance of Personnel Qualification Certificates within a partnership framework.
According to the commission’s Register of Certified Persons, there are 4,002 certified specialists in architecture and 13,807 persons in design and engineering as of January 2018. As for patriarchal approaches to training for certification, they are really puzzling. At present, there is only one method such as teaching a course. And this is in 2018! Nothing of the kind of distance learning and modern technologies!
The State Fiscal Service’s data show that the number of enterprises where architectural activities are the main KVED has been reduced threefold over the past 10 years: there were 6,566 such enterprises in 2009, and now there are about 2,060. At the same time, the country still has more or less stable construction volumes. That is, the market is becoming less competitive that also does not help to develop it.
The today’s world requires changes. The market urgently needs the expert discussion that will become a catalyst for systemic positive transformations and a driving force for development.