Principal Designer

The certification grades for new building (U) and for repairs and alteration works (K) are:

• Conventional
• Difficult (V and V+)
• Exceptionally difficult

The certification grades are based on the requirement classes of design duties stated in the Land Use and Building Act.

The certification requirements consist of requirements on certification, education, work experience and statements.  A summary of certification requirements by certification grade is presented below. The requirements for repair and alteration works (K) are presented separately to the extent as they deviate from the ones applied to new building (U).

1. CERTIFICATION

A Principal Designer shall have the valid certification of a building designer or a special designer of at least in the same certification grade as the certification of a principal designer the application is submitted for.

2. EDUCATION

The requirements for education consist of a degree and studies, as well as certification training for and certification examination of a Principal Designer.

The required degree is based on the qualification requirements for designers, set in Section 120 e of the Land Use and Building Act. The evaluation of the degree and the studies complementing it is based on the Ministry of the Environment’s guideline on the qualifications of designers of buildings (YM2/601/2015).

The applicant’s degree and studies are evaluated in conjunction with the verification of their qualifications as a building designer or a special designer. The requirements can be found in the context of these certifications.

The applicant is required to have certification training for a Principal Designer approved by FISE. The applicant shall have passed the written national certification examination of a Principal Designer organised by the secretariat organization. At the time of application, the training and the examination must have been performed within the previous 5 years.

In the Conventional certification grade, the training shall include a minimum of three (3) days of training as a course-type or scheduled training for a principal designer at the level of a university of applied sciences. In addition to this, the training shall include a thesis or a seminar paper.

In the Difficult (V or V+) and Exceptionally difficult certification grade, the training shall include a minimum of 10 days of training as a course-type or scheduled training for a principal designer at the university level. In addition to this, the training shall include a thesis or a seminar paper.

Upon decision by the certification board, the certification training can be compensated if the applicant has:

• Performed the tasks of a Principal Designer for more than seven (7) years in total
• Successfully passed the above-mentioned national examination
• Presented the required statements verifying their experience as Principal Designer, and
• Presented the contact data of four (4) persons responsible for designing and/or construction management in two (2) projects other than the projects relating to the statements (in total eight (8) persons and their contact data).

Upon decision by the certification board, the certification training and the examination can be compensated if the applicant has:

• Performed the tasks of a Principal Designer for more than 13 years in total
• Presented the required statements verifying their experience as Principal Designer, and
• Presented the contact data of  four (4) persons responsible for designing and/or construction management in four (4) projects other than the projects relating to the statements (in total 16 persons and their contact data).

The certification trainings for a Principal Designer approved by FISE and the link to the certification examinations arranged by the secretariat organisation can be found under item Certification training and examinations (in Finnish).

2. WORK EXPERIENCE

The work experience required for the certification of a Principal Designer consists of experience in designing and principal designing.

The required design experience is in accordance with the requirements on work experience stated in the qualification requirements for designers, set in Section 120 e of the Land Use and Building Act. The assessment of design experience is based on the Ministry of the Environment’s guideline on the qualifications of designers of buildings (YM2/601/2015) and the Ministry of the Environment’s guideline on the requirement classes of design tasks (YM1/601/2015).

The applicant’s design experience is evaluated in conjunction with the verification of their qualifications as a building designer or a special designer. The requirements can be found in the context of these certifications.

Principal design experience shall be performed in addition to design experience. The experience shall be performed in its entirety after completing the degree.  The last project, in which principal design experience was performed, shall have taken place within the past 5 years. In the case of repair and alteration works, the principal design experience must have accumulated sufficiently from the principal design of the repair and alteration works.

The required minimum of principal design experience shall be at least 3 years. In relation to the requirement grade of the certification to be applied for, the required principal design experience shall be as follows:

• Experience in performing the duties of a principal designer as Responsible Principal Designer in tasks that are one requirement grade lower (as Responsible Principal Designer appointed by the building control authority) and
• Assisting in principal design tasks in at least one project in the requirement grade of a certification applied for.

3. STATEMENTS

The person applying for a certification shall obtain statements verifying their experience in performing of principal design tasks, in two (2) different projects, to be filled in application forms of a special form. For both projects, a total of  four (4) statements each shall be obtained as follows:

• From the entity undertaking a construction project or their representative who has executed the construction management tasks,
• From three (3) other designers in the design team or
• If the applicant has acted as Assisting Principal Designer, a statement from the Principal Designer of the project and from two (2) other designers in the design team.

Persons issuing the statements (with the exception of the Principal Designer) may not be from the same company/organisation as the applicant.

At least one of the projects in the statements shall be completed (with final review fully performed) and the other one shall at least be taken into use. The projects for which statements are given shall have been executed in the last 10 years. If the applicant has acted as Assisting Principal Designer in the project, the applicant’s share of the Principal Designer’s tasks shall be at least 50%.
When necessary, the Certification board may request statements from expert entities of their choice.

4. APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATION BASED ON TRANSITIONAL PROVISION

The Act on the Amendment of the Land Use and Building Act, 41/2014, includes a transitional provision, according to which a person who prior to the effective date of the Act (1 September 2014) has been approved as certified for extremely difficult design tasks by the building inspection authority and thus can be deemed to have the requirements required for an exceptionally difficult design task, can be considered as a designer fulfilling the certification requirements. The certification in the Exceptionally difficult grade shall be delimited to apply for corresponding design tasks that were the basis for verifying to certification.

The applicant’s education shall be at least a former degree of a Construction Architect or an Engineer. Regarding experience, the applicant shall fulfil the requirements set forth under item WORK EXPERIENCE. Approvals of performances approved by the building inspection authority, as Responsible Principal Designer in the exceptionally difficult grade (AA) shall be presented in the application.

A verified certification will be valid for a period of seven (7) years at a time, after which the certification shall be renewed.

By renewing a certification, the applicant shall prove that he/she has worked actively in the task determined by the verified certification. The application shall provide information on employment, work experience and updating training during the certification’s period of validity.

The validity of a Principal Designer’s certification does not automatically require Your own design field maintaining competence when the applicant operates mainly in principal designer position. If the certificate of competency is applied for at a higher level than before, this is a completely new application and requirement is valid certification at least in the same certification grade.

1. WORK EXPERIENCE

The applicant must provide a report of his / her activities as a principal designer of the previous certification period. The report must show that the activity has been continuous.

The report is a reference list including following information

• nature of the project (new building/repair and alteration works)
• duration of design and construction
• principal designer and assistant principal designers
• the most demanding design task and it’s difficulty class (if several in the same class, all must be mentioned)
• an estimation of the time spent by the applicant on the principal design task.

The principal design experience gained during the past seven (7) years is considered continuous when:

• downtime of the principal designer tasks is not more than three years
• experience has included tasks in the level of difficulty of the previous qualification decision in at least two (or one long-term large) projects
• experience has been gained in part in projects where the level of difficulty of the principal design task has been up to one level lower of difficulty and which the applicant wishes to rely on to demonstrate continuity.
• A prerequisite for continuing the certification in an exceptionally difficult difficulty class is that:
  •  the applicant has at least three (3) years of experience in exceptionally difficult principal design tasks; or
  •  the applicant has worked as a responsible principal designer for at least three (3) years in the tasks of subgroup V + of difficult difficulty class and has been approved by the building supervision authority as the principal designer for an exceptionally difficult principal design task, or
  •  has worked for at least one (1) year in exceptionally difficult principal design tasks and for at least two (2) years as a principal designer approved by the building control authority in the difficulty class subgroup V +

2. UPDATING TRAINING

The requirement is updating training that supports principal designing, a minimum of 35 training hours for the previous 7 years’ registering period.

If the verification of certification is applied for in a requirement grade higher than before, it shall be applied for as new certification.

A certification or an upgrade of a certification grade is applied for using an application form that can be accessed by depressing the button APPLICATION FORM FOR CERTIFICATION at the top of this page. The application form provides detailed certification requirements and the instructions for applying for the certification.

The processing and registering fees for the Application of certification are given under APPLY FOR CERTIFICATION

Additional information on the application for certification as Principal Designer are given by the secretariat organization SAFA (in Finnish) responsible for maintaining the certification board of principal designers.