Kitchen and Bathroom Design Certificate

The Interior Design Program works closely with NKBA (National Kitchen and Bathroom Association) to assure adherence to kitchen and bathroom guidelines and accessibility standards. The Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate specifically promotes program development in terms of improving successful course completion outcomes by specifying necessary basic skills to enhancing workforce development. Furthermore, the completion of our course requirements for the Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate, will prepare students for the AKBD (Associate Kitchen & Bath Designer) exam, which will facilitate a smooth transition between academia and the workforce. The Kitchen and Bathroom certificate focuses on the impact interior design has on individuals,families, and communities. Many of the students studying Interior Design at Chabot College are student members of the NKBA Northern California Chapter.Our program strongly supports our students to attend the monthly NKBA Chapter meetings which fosters the development of the Kitchen Bathroom industry network. 

Students pursuing a Kitchen and Bath Certificate can sit for the AKBD exam six months before graduating. In addition, the NKBA has offered to cover the cost of the application and the AKBD exam for students choosing this path. We are expecting all interior design students to take advantage of this generous offer. Thus, we project that between 10 and 15 students to graduate with a CTE in Kitchen and Bath and expect this number to increase substantially in the next five years.

 

About 50% of our students are already working in the interior design field. Therefore, a Kitchen and Bath Certificate offers the opportunity to complete each student’s education and to qualify for the AKBD exam, while still attending Chabot. The classes offered by the Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate are designed to meet the needs of a large number of students, many of whom are brushing up on their design skills, changing careers, wanting to design their own home or just wanting to have fun while learning a new skill. 

The Kitchen and Bath Design Certificate is designed to prepare students to:

1.     Develop and design functional kitchen and bath spaces.

2.     Draw an appropriate and complete set of plans (i.e. floor plans, construction

      plans,elevations, details and perspective) per NKBA requirements.

3.     Apply materials, color selections and lighting for Kitchen and Bath spaces.

4.   Demonstrate an understanding of professional requirements.

Course	Title	Units	Year/Semester (Y1 or S1)
ID 48	Drafting for Interior Designer	3	Y1
ID 54	Principles of Interior Design	3	Y1
ID 58	Fundamentals of Lighting	3	Y1
ID 49	Digital Tools for Design and Visual Communication	4	Y1
ID 50	Residential Space Planning	3	Y1
ID 62	Kitchen and Bathroom Design	3	Y1
ID 60	Materials and Resources	3	Y2
ID 51	Digital Drafting Principles 1	3	Y2
ID 70	Advanced Kitchen and Bathroom Design	3	Y2
ID 56	Professional Practices	3	Y2

Some interior design classes are offered every year, while others are offered only every two years. For this reason alone, specific classes must be taken in sequence with the 1st year courses building the knowledge and prerequisite skills needed to undertake the more challenging advanced classes offered in the 2nd year.

The Interior Design Program at Chabot College is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and has been selected by the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association (NKBA) as a “Founding Member School”. Specifically, students now have several options: a choice of entry into a four-year college program or an immediate entry into the interior design industry, internship opportunities, and/or a path to the highly sought-after certification as a Kitchen and Bathroom professional when pursuing a Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate. The Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate specialization is a rapidly growing industry, and according to the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association, the “Kitchen and Bath Market represents 25% of all residential construction producing over $600 billion of income generation”.

Chabot College is the only Community College in the area that offers a Certificate of Achievement in Kitchen and Bathroom, except for Canada College. If approved will be the only College to offer a CTE in Kitchen and Bathroom. According to the “Labor Market Information Report” prepared for Chabot College by the San Francisco Bay Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research on October 2018, “there appears to be an under supply of Interior Designers compared to the demand for this occupation in the Bay region and in the East Bay sub-region. The annual gap is about 403 students annually in the bay region and 103 in the East Bay Sub-region.” Therefore, I do not believe that our request for a Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate will impact the Interior Design Program specific to their Kitchen and Bathroom Certificate, at Canada College, which geographically is so far away and serves a completely different social-economic group.