Innovation-July-August-2023

C O M M U N I T Y

BC'S COMPETENCY-BASED ASSESSMENT A MODEL FOR OTHER PROVINCES On March 15, Professional Engineers Ontario eliminated its requirement for all applicants to demonstrate 12 requirement for 12 months of experience in a Canadian environment in favour of eight Canadian Environment Competencies

competency requirements validated and assessed. Engineers and Geoscientists BC also developed the Working in Canada seminar ( competencyassessment.ca/ CanadianCompetencies/ WorkingInCanadaSeminar ), which is a 56-hour, online and self-paced, series of training modules that correspond to Canadian environment competencies and, in certain cases, can supplement an applicant’s knowledge in an area in which they have not achieved the required level. See also: Canadian Environment Competencies – Guide for Applicants and Accessors ( competencyassessment. ca/reference-documents/Canadian Environment-Experience-Competencies Guide-for-Applicants-and-Assessors.pdf ).

that all engineering applicants must demonstrate at an entry-to-practice

months of Canadian work experience. This change brings PEO’s experience requirements more in line with BC and most other provinces. Ontario's new criteria closely mirrors the competency-based assessment (CBA) framework used for applicants that Engineers and Geoscientists BC developed for the engineering profession between 2004-2009 and was approved by the Board in 2010. In recent years, the CBA framework and online system has been adopted by several provinces. BC's CBA framework, which became mandatory for all professional engineer applicants in 2015 and professional geoscientist applicants in 2020, is a fair and open process to determine if an individual has satisfied the necessary competencies for licensure at an entry-to-practice level. "It's a much fairer way of assessing people," says Jason Ong, Director, Registration, at Engineers and Geoscientists BC. "We put in a lot of work transitioning to this decades ago because we recognized it was the right thing to do for fairness, transparency and also with regards to how best we can manage the flow of applications, which has been ever increasing." Currently, about 50 percent of applications are from internationally trained applicants. The CBA system provides efficiencies in the assessment process and also allows applicants to report their work examples from anywhere in the world. COMPETENCY-BASED MODEL With the implementation of the Professional Governance Act , Engineers and Geoscientists BC transitioned away from the traditional time-based

level. The competencies cover technical, communication, professional accountability and social, economic, environmental and sustainability categories. Canadian Environment Competencies for the Geoscience profession have been developed and will likely be implemented in the fall of 2023. SUPPORT MATERIALS AVAILABLE To assist applicants, Engineers and Geoscientists BC developed the competency assessment platform ( competencyassessment.ca/ ) so applicants can record their progress and have their

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