INNOVATION September-October 2016

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

VOLUME 20 NUMBER 5

v iewpoint

Employability and capacity of graduating students and registered professionals in Canada are critical to filling the country’s future needs for geoscience and engineering services. Significant changes are now being considered in how students and professionals are assessed. Do you remember being an undergrad student and the courses you had to take? Some courses that we had to take were important and some…I never understood why we needed to take them at all. To get an APEGBC professional license, applicants have to attain four years of work experience, among other things. The methods of assessment presented are based on pre-set criteria. In other words, students or professional have been assessed by time in class or at work, with an outcome assumed but not directly measured. This approach is being revisited. As recently discussed in The Economist (“How to Teach Teachers,” June 11), education now encompasses more than coursework. Are work terms, co-op programs and volunteering enough? With ever-increasing complexity, diversity and unlimited access to knowledge, graduates need additional skills to be employable—skills not always easily gained through traditional education. At APEGBC, we’re moving to a competency-based metric for registration of engineer candidates, which will replace the long-standing, prescribed four-year work experience model. The new system directly measures outcomes instead of inferring them from time on the job, and is being adopted across the country lead by Engineers Canada. We are also working, in collaboration with Geoscientists Canada, to lay the groundwork for a similar system for geoscientist candidates. Universities are requesting that alternate generational-specific teaching methods outside the classroom be accepted as equivalent to Engineers Canada accreditation class hours. This would allow them to deliver diversified educational experiences focused on specified attributes as students and non-classroom learning tools evolve. Evolutions in mass-produced materials and product manufacturing also demonstrate the benefits of flexibility and an outcome-based focus. For decades, the most successful manufacturing processes were those that were consistent and focused on mass-producing similar products. However, today’s manufacturing can produce products that each customer can personalize to his or her needs. Tesla, Apple, Nike, and Invisalign have accepted and embraced that continuing change is needed to efficiently create great products. They have adapted to change not by trying to predict the future, but by developing systems that modify, measure, change, and quickly deliver what the market wants when it wants it. Both our accreditation systems and registration systems are doing this now. In a changing workplace, how do we decide what to teach students today when we don’t know what skills they’ll need tomorrow? Can we, as professionals and as society, innovate quickly enough to manage this challenge? The fundamentals of electricity, elastic properties, tectonic movement, and other concepts are unlikely to change, but are our education systems flexible enough to accommodate unceasing mass information and increasingly global work environments? What is your experience? Send me a message at president@ apeg.bc.ca to let me know.

Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC Suite 200 - 4010 Regent Street, Burnaby, BC Canada V5C 6N2 Tel: 604.430.8035 Fax: 604.430.8085 Email: apeginfo@apeg.bc.ca Internet: apeg.bc.ca Toll free: 1.888.430.8035 2015/2016 COUNCIL, APEGBC P residenT d r . M.C. Wrinch, P.Eng., FEC v ice P residenT R.P. Stewart, P.Eng. i MMediaTe P asT P residenT Dr. J.J. Clague, P.Geo., FGC, FEC (Hon.) COUNCILLORS C.J.A. Andrewes, P.Eng.; d r . C.D. ‘Lyn Anglin, P.Geo. D.E. Campbell, P.Eng.; R. Farbridge, P.Eng. A. Fernandes, CIM, FCSI; C. Hall, P.Eng./P.Geo. D.I. Harvey, P.Eng., Struct.Eng., FEC; K. Laloge, CPA, CA, TEP S. Martin, P.Eng.; T. Mitha, LLB C. Moser, P.Eng.; C.L. Park, P.Eng. K.V. Tarnai-Lokhorst, P.Eng.; J. Turner, P.Ag. ASSOCIATION STAFF A.J. English, P.Eng. c hief e xecuTive o fficer and r egisTrar T.M.Y. Chong, P.Eng. c hief r eguLaTory o fficer and d ePuTy r egisTrar J.Y. Sinclair c hief o PeraTing o fficer M.L. Archibald d irecTor , c oMMunicaTions and s TaKehoLder e ngageMenT J. Cho, CGA d irecTor , f inance and a dMinisTraTion D. Gamble d irecTor , i nforMaTion s ysTeMs P.R. Mitchell, P.Eng. d irecTor , P rofessionaL P racTice , s Tandards and d eveLoPMenT D. Olychick d irecTor , M eMBer s ervices G.M. Pichler, P.Eng. d irecTor , r egisTraTion

Competency Assessment: Change is Coming

Dr. Michael Wrinch, P.Eng., FEC, FGC (Hon.) President

E. Swartz, LLB d irecTor , L egisLaTion , e Thics and c oMPLiance V. Lai, CGA a ssociaTe d irecTor , f inance and a dMinisTraTion M.A. Rigolo P.Eng., a ssociaTe d irecTor , e ngineering a dMissions M oniQue K eiran , M anaging e diTor

EDITORIAL BOARD K.C. Chan, P.Eng., CPA; S. Chiu, P.Eng.

D.E. Falkins, Eng.L.; T. George, P.Eng.; H. Ghalibafian, P.Eng. G. Grill, P.Eng.; R. Gupta, P.Eng.; M.A. Klippenstein, P.Eng. A.M. Westin, GIT; M.J. Zieleman, EIT

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president@ apeg.bc.ca

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Innovation is published six times a year by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. As the official publication of the association, Innovation is circulated to members of the engineering and geoscience professions, architects, contractors and industry executives. The views expressed in any article contained herein do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Council or membership of this association. Submission Guidelines: Innovation encourages unsolicited articles and photos. By submitting material to Innovation , you grant APEGBC a royalty-free, worldwide licence to publish the material; and you warrant that you have the authority to grant such rights and have obtained waivers of all associated moral rights. Innovation reserves the right to edit material for length, clarity and conformity with our editorial guidelines (apeg.bc.ca/innovation-editorial) and is under no obligation to publish any or all submissions or any portion thereof, including credits. All material is copyright. Please contact the Managing Editor for reprint permission.

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