Interior Design Experience Requirement (IDER)

Interior Design Experience Requirement (IDER) is ARIDO’s current experience requirement for registered membership and is required for all new interns joining ARIDO as of January 2022. This is one of two ways to track and report your supervised work experience requirement. It is a move away from hours-based reporting to evidence-based reporting and requires the completion of mandatory tasks within each interior design phase. With this transition, ARIDO believes this new reporting format will provide Intern members with a greater understanding of their next steps on the interior design career path, along with a clearly defined roadmap for their career growth plan which can be established with their Supervisor or Mentor.

For Supervisors and Mentors, the new requirement provides clear and consistent areas of supervised experience so Supervisors and Mentors can ensure Interns obtain the experience needed. As more Intern members begin onboarding with the new requirement, it will also result in more consistent and equitable training across the Intern membership.

Interns completing either reporting path must track all work experience which meets the supervised work experience requirements. You are advised to track this experience throughout the years that you are completing it.

If, during this period of time, you have successfully completed the required work experience through multiple jobs under multiple Supervisors or Mentors, you will need to separately report and obtain a signature from each of these Supervisors or Mentors. This applies to both the IDER reporting and hours-based reporting. For example, if over the course of three years you have obtained work experience through two separate jobs with two separate firms, you will need to report the accumulated experience separately. This will mean obtaining signatures from both Supervisors to whom you reported.

Once you have obtained the required amount of supervised work experience, make sure that your reporting is complete and that all qualified Supervisors or Mentors have signed-off. Your reporting can be completed by filling in the appropriate documentation for the path you are following.

Tools and Resources | Transition Period to IDER | Transition Chart

Who qualifies as a Supervisor or Mentor?

For both IDER and the hours-based path, a direct Supervisor is the individual within the firm where the Intern is employed and who supervises their daily work. A current or former direct Supervisor may sign off on experience of which they supervised. A work experience Mentor is not the Intern’s direct employment supervisor, but one who meets the above qualifications and volunteers their time to review, give feedback, and sign off on the Intern’s work.

Experience completed through the IDER path or the hours path will qualify Interns to write the exam alternative (EAP) to qualify for Registered membership.

Tools and Resources

Below are the reporting tools which must be completed by Applicants and Supervisors / Mentors for the Interior Design Experience Requirement and helpful guides which provide more details on the Requirement. We recommend using Adobe Reader to edit and complete the fillable PDFs.

For Applicants

• IDER Applicant Guide
• IDER Applicant Attestation Form (Fillable PDF)
• IDER Applicant Self Report of Supervised Work Experience (Fillable PDF)

For Supervisors / Mentors

• IDER Supervisor Guide
• IDER Supervisor Attestation Form (Fillable PDF)
• IDER Supervisor Education Experience Form (Fillable PDF)

Additional Tools

The ARIDO staff are here for you. We have developed a series of tools to assist you in making your decision and are available to answer any questions you may have.

We recommend you engage in the following tools:

• Completing Supervised Work Experience – Step by Step instructions in the Intern Career Guide
• Supervised Work Experience FAQ
• The Supervised Work Experience Requirement for Interior Designers in Ontario Whitepaper – Describes the competency mapping process that informed the creation of the Interior Design Experience Requirement
• Appendicies (Document 1) – Glossary of Terms, Procedures, Meeting Reports, Handouts, Exit Surveys, Field Testing Materials
• Webinar Recording – Recorded webinar conducted by ARIDO Executive Director Sharon Portelli as she walked participants through the requirements of the IDER webinar and reporting obligations under the new program

In preparing for the launch of the new program, the ARIDO staff and Board were cognizant that all existing Intern members are at different places within their work experience and work towards Registered membership. As such, we realize that many Interns have already begun documenting Supervised Work Experience using the hours-based reporting system.

In 2021, ARIDO requested that current Interns indicate their choice for following the hours based path or the competency based path.

From 2022 onward, all new Interns will report using the new evidence-based reporting model.

IDER Transition Chart

		Acceptable types of documentation
Group	Timing for applying to meet the Experience requirement	Hours Based Reporting	Task-Based Reporting (IDER)
Current Intern Members who indicated they will continue in hours-based system
Current Intern Members who indicated they will use the competencies-based system
New Intern Members	Becoming an Intern Member on or after October 1, 2022
Former Intern Members	Applying for reinstatement within 3 years of resignation or termination, and on, or after October 1, 2022
	Applying for reinstatement after 3 years of resignation or termination, and on, or after October 1, 2022
Former Registered or Educator-Registered Members	Applying for reinstatement within 3 years of resignation or termination, and on, or after October 1, 2022	n/a	n/a
	Applying for reinstatement after 3 years of resignation or termination, and on, or after October 1, 2022