We are the British national representative to the European Council of Interior Architecture (ECIA), provider of the European Charter of Education, the shared education standard
SBID is the unique provider to Britain of the European Charter of Education. We uphold this rigid international standard and provide a unique gateway from Britain to all European member countries, their official national interior design organisation and their approved universities to Britain. This pre-eminent status also provides a route to USA, New Zealand, Canada and the Gulf States.
As part of our obligation to provide education, we facilitated the ‘Gateway to Europe for UK Education’ and we launched the protected programme for Continued Professional Development (CPD) in 2012, the first and pre-eminent programme for interior design in the UK.
We provide lifelong learning for those in education, in practice and on the career ladder so they can improve their performance and knowledge. For those already in practice we created the first industry-specific facility for lifelong learning through the SBID CPD™ Education Authority.
SBID has successfully defined those interior designers who meet the European Code of Practice, distinguishing them from designers and hobbyists who do not meet these standards. This has been achieved without damaging the interests of any parties. Furthermore, it serves to assure the customer that any SBID Accredited Member is an experienced, trained and accredited professional practitioner.
Importantly, we catapulted the reputation of British professional designers by providing accreditation which is supported by lifelong education. In doing so, we protected consumers, improved industry reputation and facilitated increased overseas investment through trade agreements. We set education as a criteria for a professional fir the first time in the UK, we introduced the European standard of qualification for a professional practitioner of;
- 4 years* of education with a recognised degree in interior design
- 2 years work experience
- 24 annual CPD accrued points from licensed CPD Providers
* In Europe and Scotland an interior design degree course is four years, SBID lobbied ECIA for change to provide access for our two year BA Degree course by allowing an exchange of 1.5 years of additional work experience.
Supported by a variety of government bodies, SBID researched the market in 2009 and again in 2012 and launched the protected SBID CPD programme. This pre-eminent status positioned SBID members and our licensed CPD providers in a position of qualified authority for interior design by providing independently assessed qualification, life-long learning and regulation standards equal to other highly respected professions in the U.K.