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Building a compliant, upskilled, and project-ready architecture team isn’t just a matter of signing people up for training. It takes a learning and development organizational strategy that connects license renewals, Health, Safety, and Welfare guidelines, continuing education (CE) planning, and long-term professional development. This Architecture Continuing Education Playbook provides firms with a practical roadmap for managing licensing, continuing education, and career growth.
Across five focused chapters, we walk you through the architect development lifecycle—from tracking multi-state licenses and selecting the right HSW courses to building professional development plans that support retention and firm growth. You’ll get a step-by-step blueprint for architecture continuing education and training, built for teams working in technical, regulated environments.
Pair it with our Architecture & Design online training library and Architecture & Design course catalog to accelerate your training program.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
- Build an architecture continuing education strategy that supports safety, compliance, and workforce readiness
- Track multi-state license renewals and CE requirements without relying on manual spreadsheets
- Choose the most critical architecture courses to prioritize for the coming year
- Curate a list of high-impact, accredited architecture CE courses for your firm, using tools like our LMS and course libraries built specifically for AEC firms
- Set and track professional development goals for architects at every stage of their careers
Build a Smarter Architecture CE Program from the Ground Up
Chapter 1: How to Track Your Team’s Architecture License Renewals
Get a complete view of what it takes to track architecture license renewals across states, boards, and disciplines. This chapter walks through setting up a centralized tracking system, avoiding risky data silos, and ensuring no license falls through the cracks. Learn how to give leadership clear visibility into license status and renewal timelines, so your firm stays compliant and project-ready.
You’ll also see how a purpose-built system like the Vector AEC LMS for learning and license management can streamline tracking and renewals.
Chapter 2: The Most Critical Architecture Courses for 2026
Licensing boards, codes, and client expectations evolve every year. This chapter outlines the most critical architecture courses to prioritize for 2026, with a focus on health, safety, and welfare (HSW), sustainability, risk management, and digital skills. You’ll see how to align courses with emerging trends and regulatory shifts, so your architects stay ahead of what’s coming next.
From here, you can dive deeper into specific recommendations and examples in our article on critical architecture courses.
Chapter 3: The Best Architecture Continuing Education Courses
Not all CE is created equal. In this chapter, you’ll find a curated view of high-impact architecture CE courses that support license renewal, safety, ethics, and technical growth. Learn how to evaluate course quality, accreditation, delivery format, and relevance to your firm’s specialties and create training program access that drives real behavior change and knowledge retention.
You can browse a selection of top CE options in our guide to the best architecture continuing education courses and connect it with the Architecture & Design training catalog.
Chapter 4: Architecture Continuing Education Requirements (and How to Stay Audit-Ready)
Every board has its own rules, and keeping them straight can be challenging. This chapter breaks down architecture continuing education requirements across key jurisdictions, including HSW hour expectations, live vs. self-paced criteria, and documentation standards. You’ll learn how to centralize tracking, prepare for audits, and prove compliance with clear, exportable records.
For a more detailed breakdown of requirements by state and province, explore our full guide to architecture continuing education requirements.
Chapter 5: How to Set and Track Professional Development Goals for Architects
Most firms treat CE as a checkbox exercise. This chapter shows you how to turn it into a true professional development engine to support workforce readiness. Learn how to set SMART goals for architects at different career stages, connect learning plans to project pipelines and firm strategy, and track progress over time. You’ll walk away with templates and examples for goal-setting conversations, performance reviews, and long-term development paths.
For more ideas on structured development, see our article on architect and engineer learning and development paths.
Explore Our Architecture Training Solutions Designed to Help Your Firm Succeed
The playbook gives you the strategy, and Vector Solutions provides the platform to execute it. Our architecture-focused continuing education, training management, and compliance solutions help firms deliver accredited HSW and CE courses, simplify license renewal tracking, and support career development across distributed teams.
Start with:
- Vector LMS for AEC – purpose-built learning and license management for architecture, engineering, and construction firms
- Vector LMS and Training Management for AEC brochure – a deeper look at how our LMS supports CE, license renewals, and compliance reporting
- Architecture & Design online training library – 280+ architecture and design training courses to support CE and skills development
- Architecture, Engineering, and Construction online course library – comprehensive AEC training to maintain professional licenses and stay up to date with best practices
