Hi All,
I would like to share with you my experience about the Professional Engineer registeration. Here, I will talk about how to prepare the work experience documents.
(The article with links and the work experience document that I prepared can be downloaded from here: samehelnaggar.ca/PEngWork.htm)
So now you are waiting to become a Permanent Resident (or you already are). Your experience was evaluated by a Canada Immigration Citizenship (CIC) officer. CIC has endorsed your 10+ years of experience. You may find the following statements make prefect sense: you requested from your references to write the letters of experience according to the NOC (National Occupational Classifications); the CIC officer endorsed your years of experience; therefore, according to the government of Canada standards, you are few steps away from being a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng). Well, if you agree with the above series of (logical) statements, then I encourage you to continue reading.
In a nutshell, the above statements are correct BUT the conclusion is not. Yes, there is no correlation between the government endorsement and being a P. Eng. To better understand this, it is important to know that the engineering profession is regulated by the provinces and territories, not by the federal government. In every province and territory, there is an Association, which was created by what is called Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, an Act or Law issued by the province. For instance, I am registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB); APEGNB is responsible for regulating the profession in New Brunswick. In other provinces, for example: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, etc there are different Associations. If you are registered with one Association (i.e, to practice in one province) that does not imply you can practice anywhere in Canada. To facilitate the mobility of engineers across Canada, almost all Associations adopt the same registration requirements and they all, voluntary, adopt the recommendations of Engineer Canada.
Each Association posts on its website what members must have to be qualified as a P.Eng. According to APEGNB, the requirements are:
be academically qualified
have obtained sufficient acceptable engineering or geoscience work experience in their area of qualification
have an understanding of local practices and conditions
be competent in English or French
be of good character, and
demonstrate an understanding of professional practice and ethics issues.
As you can see, the requirements seem to be very generic and immeasurable. In fact, they are not. Here, I will briefly highlight how to document your overseas work experience (the second point), as this is sometimes overlooked.
A sufficient acceptable engineering work experience is worth some explanation. The keywords here are: sufficient and acceptable. Usually “sufficient” means four years of experience (in Quebec, it is three years). “Acceptable” means that the experience has certain attributes which are defined by Engineer Canada and adopted by the Associations. Now forget about the NOC job description and forget about your letters of experience that you submitted to CIC to become a permanent resident. You need to prepare a new, from scratch, documents! Yes this is true, at least it is what I did. You can still use the NOC-like letter as guidance though.
The Association will assess your work experience against five main attributes:
Practical Experience
Application of Theory
Management
Communication Skills
Social Implications
Compare with the NOC requirements for an electrical engineer (NOC 2133):
Conduct research into the feasibility, design, operation and performance of electrical generation and distribution networks, electrical machinery and components and electronic communications, instrumentation and control systems, equipment, and components
Prepare material cost and timing estimates, reports and design specifications for electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Design electrical and electronic circuits, components, systems and equipment
Conduct micro or nanodevices simulations, characterization, process modeling and integration in the development of new electronic devices and products
Supervise and inspect the installation, modification, testing and operation of electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Develop maintenance and operating standards for electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Investigate electrical or electronic failures
Prepare contract documents and evaluate tenders for construction or maintenance
Supervise technicians, technologists, programmers, analysts and other engineers.
You may argue that the NOC job description implies the five attributes and vice versa. Well, I agree with you! However please note the following:
The NOC description is more like the day to day routine, unlike the five attributes. The Association wants to assess the skills and knowledge.
There is no one to one mapping between the five attributes and the NOC description and vice versa. In theory, you can extract from a letter written according to the NOC job description the five attributes, but this can be hard and you do not want to make the Association job hard.
For EIT (Engineers in Training) or MIT (Members in Training), the Association provides them with a log book to record their experience according to the five attributes. This means that the board in the Association which assesses the work experience is used to a format that values the five attributes.
If you use your NOC-like letter, you might forget some important key points. For example, you may forget the social implication aspect. Please remember that the most important purpose of the Association is to guarantee that the interest and wealth of the public are protected. While writing my letter to the Association, the Social Implication attribute reminded me of some crucial work I did which is related to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). Without highlighting this attribute, I would focus more on the technical aspects and miss critical social implications.
In the work experience letter, I arranged my tasks according to major projects. After each section, I summarized the skills and knowledge gained according to the five attributes. Well, this worked for me and hopefully will work for you too. (My work experience documentation can be found here).
Important note:
It is very helpful to maintain contacts with your previous employer. In the application that you file to the association, you provide contact details of your previous employers. The Association may contact them for further information, or to make sure that your document is accurate. Yes, DON’T FAKE your work experience; writing it in a certain format does not mean to change the truth.
(samehelnaggar.ca/PEngWork.htm)
I would like to share with you my experience about the Professional Engineer registeration. Here, I will talk about how to prepare the work experience documents.
(The article with links and the work experience document that I prepared can be downloaded from here: samehelnaggar.ca/PEngWork.htm)
So now you are waiting to become a Permanent Resident (or you already are). Your experience was evaluated by a Canada Immigration Citizenship (CIC) officer. CIC has endorsed your 10+ years of experience. You may find the following statements make prefect sense: you requested from your references to write the letters of experience according to the NOC (National Occupational Classifications); the CIC officer endorsed your years of experience; therefore, according to the government of Canada standards, you are few steps away from being a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng). Well, if you agree with the above series of (logical) statements, then I encourage you to continue reading.
In a nutshell, the above statements are correct BUT the conclusion is not. Yes, there is no correlation between the government endorsement and being a P. Eng. To better understand this, it is important to know that the engineering profession is regulated by the provinces and territories, not by the federal government. In every province and territory, there is an Association, which was created by what is called Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, an Act or Law issued by the province. For instance, I am registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB); APEGNB is responsible for regulating the profession in New Brunswick. In other provinces, for example: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, etc there are different Associations. If you are registered with one Association (i.e, to practice in one province) that does not imply you can practice anywhere in Canada. To facilitate the mobility of engineers across Canada, almost all Associations adopt the same registration requirements and they all, voluntary, adopt the recommendations of Engineer Canada.
Each Association posts on its website what members must have to be qualified as a P.Eng. According to APEGNB, the requirements are:
be academically qualified
have obtained sufficient acceptable engineering or geoscience work experience in their area of qualification
have an understanding of local practices and conditions
be competent in English or French
be of good character, and
demonstrate an understanding of professional practice and ethics issues.
As you can see, the requirements seem to be very generic and immeasurable. In fact, they are not. Here, I will briefly highlight how to document your overseas work experience (the second point), as this is sometimes overlooked.
A sufficient acceptable engineering work experience is worth some explanation. The keywords here are: sufficient and acceptable. Usually “sufficient” means four years of experience (in Quebec, it is three years). “Acceptable” means that the experience has certain attributes which are defined by Engineer Canada and adopted by the Associations. Now forget about the NOC job description and forget about your letters of experience that you submitted to CIC to become a permanent resident. You need to prepare a new, from scratch, documents! Yes this is true, at least it is what I did. You can still use the NOC-like letter as guidance though.
The Association will assess your work experience against five main attributes:
Practical Experience
Application of Theory
Management
Communication Skills
Social Implications
Compare with the NOC requirements for an electrical engineer (NOC 2133):
Conduct research into the feasibility, design, operation and performance of electrical generation and distribution networks, electrical machinery and components and electronic communications, instrumentation and control systems, equipment, and components
Prepare material cost and timing estimates, reports and design specifications for electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Design electrical and electronic circuits, components, systems and equipment
Conduct micro or nanodevices simulations, characterization, process modeling and integration in the development of new electronic devices and products
Supervise and inspect the installation, modification, testing and operation of electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Develop maintenance and operating standards for electrical and electronic systems and equipment
Investigate electrical or electronic failures
Prepare contract documents and evaluate tenders for construction or maintenance
Supervise technicians, technologists, programmers, analysts and other engineers.
You may argue that the NOC job description implies the five attributes and vice versa. Well, I agree with you! However please note the following:
The NOC description is more like the day to day routine, unlike the five attributes. The Association wants to assess the skills and knowledge.
There is no one to one mapping between the five attributes and the NOC description and vice versa. In theory, you can extract from a letter written according to the NOC job description the five attributes, but this can be hard and you do not want to make the Association job hard.
For EIT (Engineers in Training) or MIT (Members in Training), the Association provides them with a log book to record their experience according to the five attributes. This means that the board in the Association which assesses the work experience is used to a format that values the five attributes.
If you use your NOC-like letter, you might forget some important key points. For example, you may forget the social implication aspect. Please remember that the most important purpose of the Association is to guarantee that the interest and wealth of the public are protected. While writing my letter to the Association, the Social Implication attribute reminded me of some crucial work I did which is related to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). Without highlighting this attribute, I would focus more on the technical aspects and miss critical social implications.
In the work experience letter, I arranged my tasks according to major projects. After each section, I summarized the skills and knowledge gained according to the five attributes. Well, this worked for me and hopefully will work for you too. (My work experience documentation can be found here).
Important note:
It is very helpful to maintain contacts with your previous employer. In the application that you file to the association, you provide contact details of your previous employers. The Association may contact them for further information, or to make sure that your document is accurate. Yes, DON’T FAKE your work experience; writing it in a certain format does not mean to change the truth.
(samehelnaggar.ca/PEngWork.htm)
