CIDA Seeks Input for Professional Standards

June 24, 2015  by in Designer Weekly   

The council asks for input from interior design educators, practitioners, employers, students, and members of allied fields—go here by June 16 to review and comment on the standards.

“Future interior design graduates should not only be prepared with the knowledge required for entry-level practice, but also with a foundation that poises them to be highly valued contributors well into the future," said Pamela Evans, chair of the CIDA board. "Community input is necessary to refine the elements of this vision and ensure that the quality thresholds CIDA describes are relevant and valid expectations appropriately calibrated to professional-level interior design education."

For the past two years, CIDA has been gathering information about dynamics and trends influencing the future of interior design and its higher education—and attempting to validate the impact of those trends. In fall 2014, the council hosted Future Vision, a targeted two day session for industry leaders to analyze the current findings and forecasted implications for professional-level interior design education.

The first draft of Professional Standards 2017 reflects this two-year process of research and analysis. Now community consultation is the next step in developing a final proposed set of standards. Following the first review process, standards will be refined with consideration to stakeholder comments.

The next period of public review will span from August to October 2015. CIDA anticipates that final standards will be adopted in December 2015 and implemented beginning just over a year later on January 1, 2017.

The CIFA standards development project has been sponsored by The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the ASID Foundation, the IIDA Foundation, the Interior Designers of Canada, Interior Design Media, and Steelcase.