The University of Tasmania in partnership with the Launceston Assistance and Research Centre Pty Ltd (LARC) has developed and launched an exciting new integrated workplace learning programme that provides students with the opportunity to work in a professional office environment on real-life projects.
LARC is located in the Launceston CBD, near the corner of George and Cameron Streets, close to the centre of the city. It offers street-front office space that will significantly enhance public interaction with both the projects undertaken by the students and the students themselves. The real-life projects that run through LARC are being offered to students as elective units that are assessable towards their degree courses. This gives students the opportunity to gain valuable office experience in parallel with their academic studies.
A portion of LARC’s office space operates as a vocational training centre for students of architecture, urban design, furniture design, interior design and landscape architecture. Running entirely as a professional office in every respect, the LARC elective units will offer participants the chance to be involved in all aspects of practice, from client meetings, through design and documentation, to accounting and management.
The intergrated workplace learning programme will specifically target projects that hold a particular benefit to the broader community or community groups. It will offer its design, documentation and project management services to projects that would not otherwise benefit from such assistance. The work will include involvement in projects that may not gain professional support or input due to funding constraints.
In addition to these specific commissions, students may undertake speculative or hypothetical projects that offer possible solutions for design problems that currently attract the public interest. Through this mechanism it is envisaged that LARC and the student body may be able to broaden public debate on matters related to the built environment.
Through the integrated workplace learning programme, LARC will have the financial capacity to undertake a wide range of important design and construction projects on a pro bono basis. Such projects may be either locally generated or sourced through, for example, Architects Without Frontiers, and other similar organisations.
Substantial difficulty exists in smaller regional centres, such as Launceston, in obtaining appropriate material for the continuation of professional development. LARC will organise and facilitate broad industry engagement for this purpose.
Additionally, these events will offer both students and practitioners, of all related disciplines, the opportunity to network, forge and maintain both professional and social relationships. In each of the above examples, students would be responsible for the bulk of the work under the guidance and mentoring of senior LARC staff.
A requirement for registration as a chartered architect is the successful completion of a log book recording the range of practical experience undertaken by the candidate. Students enrolled in learning programmes through LARC will be given the opportunity to record their experiences in the AACA log book and have this experience signed off by the ‘supervising architect’, to this end.
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