We hear from recently elected committee member Sara Saadouni, touching upon her experiences becoming chartered and how she hopes to use her insights to help others that earned their qualifications outside of the UK.

Over the past few years, I have been thinking about ways I could contribute by sharing my story and supporting other people in my position, and the idea of doing so via the NDSA platform is indeed very exciting.  

I tend to receive many requests online from people just arriving to the UK from non-EU countries or having been here a few months. What these requests have in common is that people have very little idea of how to get a job in Architecture and the procedures they need to go through to convert their architecture diplomas into the UK equivalent.

These people, like me, want to work and contribute positively to the built environment, bringing their unique training and points of view to their new communities in the UK. However, as I discovered myself, there are big barriers and very little resources to help navigate the system.

In my view, and as discerned straight away by others within the NDSA Committee, there is a gap that needs addressing with regards to the knowledge and support available to non-EU nationals wanting to work in Architecture.

I think there are many ways to bridge this gap and support people in my position, but the one that speaks to me the most is reaching out to people who have been through the same experiences and asking them to share their stories, their struggles, and how they eventually made it. In addition,

I think it may be beneficial to:

• Reach out to ARB prescribed exam jury members and interview them, asking the right questions from the point of view of a prospective applicant;

• Organise workshops led by people familiar with the ARB criteria (e.g. jury members, academic staff, etc.) to provide advice and insight to prospective applicants; and

• Talk to employers and understand what they are looking for in a job applicant coming from a route other than the ARB Parts 1-3 as done in the UK.

I believe that people will relate to stories, human connections, and shared experiences, so I think that this could be a great way to make the diploma conversion and job hunt process more human than just a series of bureaucratic boxes to tick.

I will work to prepare a series of articles and blog posts to visually support these discussions and give examples of how specific criteria can be met. They will then be organised into talks and workshops, if meeting in person will be possible.

I believe being a committee member at NDSA will give me the platform and tools to reach out and approach people who can contribute to this initiative, for which I believe there there will be overwhelming interest in the subject.

If you would like to get involved in helping me on this journey then please reach out via info@ndsa.org.uk

Sara Saadouni