IfA - A Chartered Institute

[the invisible man]

I'm far from convinced that that is/would be the case, Dino. There is clearly far more to this Chartering business than meets the eye and the little document doesn't go into much detail. It does point out that if an insitute is chartered this does not necessarily mean that it can confer chartered status upon its members: that is a seperate step. So does this mean a barrier to entry to the profession or not, does it mean that "archaeologist" is a protected title? It's all very complicated. For example, there are obviously barriers and restrictions on who can practise as a doctor or dentist. However, anyone can practise as an architect, but only registered architects can call themselves an Architect as it is a protected title. They do not have to belong to the RIBA.

Even if it all goes the whole hog, I am not sure that that would be a bad thing. We all bleat on here about standards and professionalism, and wail that no-one else thinks we are professionals. But who would be, and who would have to be, the new registered/chartere/BS kite marked/approved and money back if not satisfied Archaeologists? Every digger on a site? Eyeryone in the office, post-ex and specialist types? Just those in a position of responsibility, if so, only the bod in charge, the Project Manager, supervisors? To return to my architectural analogy, in most offices it is actually quite rare for all staff to be proper architects.