To become a full Member, applicants need to satisfy the Institute that they meet its academic and professional requirements. Routes to becoming a full Member are given in the next section.

Full Membership is only available to those upgrading from Profile, Associate or Technician membership having completed the Technologist professional Occupational Performance Record or re-instating full Membership having lapsed for less than three years. Full Members are entitled to use the designation MCIAT.

To be become a qualified technician you will be required to demonstrate to the Institute that you have met its academic and professional requirements.

This will require you to complete the Technician POP record. Technician members are eligible to use the designation TCIAT. This grade is not open to individuals who are self-employed.

To become an associate member, an applicant must have gained on of the following qualifications :

• a degree in architectural technology or a built environment subject with a technology base
• an EDEXCEL/SQA (HND/HNC) in architectural technology or building studies
• an alternative CIAT approved higher level qualification
• an S/NVQ level 4 in architectural technology plus supplementary subjects

Associate members are entitled to use the designation ACIAT. Applicants who are self-employed should register as a profile member (Type B) but are not able to attain TCIAT. Associate members who wish to become self-employed should contact the Institute for guidance.

Architectural Technologists may establish their careers through experience alone. Profit applicants may have entered work immediately on leaving school and gained the required skills and experience by working for and working with highly experienced people. This way, it may take around ten years to reach a sufficiently high level of competence to be able to progress via the 'Profiling Route of Entry'. Profile membership has no designation. There are two types of Profile membership :

• Type A is for applicants without full standard associate qualifications. It is also for applicants with non-standard (including overseas) qualifications. Applicants who have a non-standard qualification may be asked to submit their course documentation for assessment by the Institute.

• Type B is for applicants with an associate level qualification but are self-employed. Please note that self-employed members cannot progress to TCIAT

To become a student member applicants need to be a student following a part-time or full-time course designed to lead to a career in architectural technology. This can be at any level of tertiary education. Information on courses and a career in architectural technology can be found in the CIAT publication The Architectural Technology Careers Handbook which is available from Central Office.

Standard progression

Associate or Profile members with an approved degree will be able to progress to full Membership if CIAT via the completion of the Technologist Professional Occupational Performance Record (POP Record) under the supervision of an approved supervisor. The candidate will then be required to pass a professional interview to attain full Membership of CIAT.

Technician progression

A Technician member (TCIAT) will be able to progress to full Membership of CIAT via the completion of the Technologist Professional Occupational Performance Record (POP Record) under the supervision of an approved supervisor. The candidate will then be required to pass a professional interview to attain full Membership of CIAT.

Experiential progression

A Profile member with either an HNC/D or without a formal recognized qualification, can progress towards full Membership once they have attained at least ten years relevant work experience and are over the age of thirty. A candidate will be required to complete the Technologist Professional Occupational Performance Record (POP Record) under the supervision of an approved supervisor. The candidate will then be required to pass a professional interview to attain full Membership of CIAT.

Standard progression

Associate members who wish to progress to technician member(TCIAT) will be required to complete the Technician Professional Occupational Performance Record (POP Record) under the supervision of an approved supervisor. Please note that the Technician grade of membership is not open to individuals who are self employed.

Experiential progression

Profile members who have no recognized associate level qualification but who have more than ten years relevant experience and are over the age of thirty will be eligible to progress to Technician member via the completion of the Technician Professional Occupational Performance Record (POP Record) under the supervision of an approved supervisor. Please note that the Technician grade of membership is not open to individuals who are self employed.

CIAT operates a group membership scheme to help employers wishing to promote professionalism among their employees. Employers with three or more staff wishing to apply for CIAT membership (at any grade) should submit their applications en bloc. The advantages of group membership are :

• no membership application fee is charged
• the possibility of arranging interview boards at your practice (subject to there being a sufficient number of candidates who are ready for interview).

You can obtain further details on the scheme from our Central Office