buildingSMART International Professional Certification

One of the core goals of buildingSMART is to promote openBIM and open standards and to help the construction industry to adopt digital ways of working consistently, through an authorised network of training partners. Each Chapter acts as the ‘regional authority’ to help local training providers develop appropriate local course content, which is aligned internationally under the building SMART Professional Certification Program.

The buildingSMART Professional Certification program enables learning organisations to educate and certify individuals according to a recognised global learning framework. It is a proof of competence for professionals working with Information Management using BIM.  Qualified and Certified professionals can demonstrate their knowledge is consistent with international standards and best practices.

buildingSMART UKI is pleased to support this significant effort to deliver internationally standardised and recognised training content by defining learning outcomes for the UKI and managing the approval of UKI training providers.  Approved training providers will be able to submit students who take their training to sit the exam and become individually certified and gain a recognised individual qualification.

It’s important to note that buildingSMART UK & Ireland do NOT deliver the training itself.

To find out more about the international program please visit buildingSMART International’s website by clicking here.

The buildingSMART UK & Ireland programme has the following objectives:

The buildingSMART Professional Certification is currently active in two areas:

The Foundation level addresses knowledge and comprehension around openBIM principles (knowledge-based learning).

The Practitioner level is currently in development, it addresses practical expertise through the individual’s ability to apply, analyse and evaluate in activities at work.

(At this time, buildingSMART UK & Ireland is focusing on the launch of the Professional Certification – Foundation)

UK Implementation Background
The international Body of Knowledge (which defines the training content for training providers) is very much focused on the learning outcomes to support training content around openBIM. It comprises five modules with associated learning outcomes.

buildingSMART UK & Ireland has developed an additional Module 6 for the UK & Ireland implementation of the Professional Certification Foundation (Basic) Curriculum (also supported by the Body of Knowledge).

The UK implementation has been designed to incorporate the UK BIM Framework Learning Outcomes available here. It also signposts training providers to other key UK & Ireland guidance or standards documents, which should be an integral part of the training providers learning curriculum.

Module 6 includes:

1.  UK BIM Framework Learning Outcomes 2020 
2.  ISO19650-2:2018 incorporating corrigendum February 2021 
3.  Government Soft Landings, 2019
4.  Construction Playbook, 2020
5.  Transforming Infrastructure Performance – Roadmap to 2030
6.  Construction 2025
7.  Uniclass

buildingSMART UK & Ireland Professional Certification Authors

As ever, we are hugely grateful to the industry volunteers responsible for authoring the buildingSMART UK & Ireland Module 6 Body of Knowledge and exam question database, without whom, it would not have been possible to create such a comprehensive package.

The UK & Ireland Professional Steering Committee comprises:

Phil Read, Man and Machine (Program Lead)
Lawrence Chapman, HS2
Martin Simpson, Digital BE Ltd
Richard White, Man and Machine
Alan Hore, TU Dublin
Stephen Holmes, Cadventure
Shaun Farrell, Buro Happold

The team has been supported by industry experts and an Audit Committee who we would like to thank for their contribution including:

Dr Anne Kemp OBE, Atkins
Casey D Rutland, digitalgreen
Sarah Davidson, University of Nottingham