Competency-Based Assessment
Fair Registration Practices Act
Our competency-based assessment (CBA) tool was introduced in 2018 to allow engineering applicants to assess and explain their work experience. This approach is an objective and consistent way of evaluating professional competency, especially for applicants who gained their work experience outside of Canada. We have made changes to the CBA processes and policies to increase the tool’s efficiency and effectiveness. • We originally used two examiners to review low-risk applications. After gaining experience with CBA, we confidently reduced this to one reviewer. • After implementation, the number of refused applications increased due to deficiencies in the applications. We changed the process to allow deferrals and provide applicants with information on how to address the deficiencies. This permits applicants to remain inside the application process while they resolve experience deficiencies, saving them time and money.
We made substantial progress in 2020 on a multi-year project to renew our registration tools and processes. Clear improvements have brought us closer to meeting targets set by the Fair Registration Practices Act introduced by the Government of Alberta in June 2019. • The Act requires regulators to provide applicants with an interim decision on their application status within six months of submission. • The decision can include advice on extra training or additional experience required. APEGA strives to continuously enhance and expedite our registration process without compromising public safety. Our existing registration practices meet industry best practices, including being aligned with the province’s foreign-qualification recognition framework. Further enhancements in 2020 are improving our application processing times. • Licensed APEGA staff members (professional engineers and professional geoscientists) support the Board of Examiners (BOE) by conducting academic and experience reviews for low-risk files. • Some low-risk applications can be approved quickly without additional review. • The BOE is deferring applications that are highly deficient in academic qualifications (those lacking a half-year or more of engineering or geoscience education). • A recruitment campaign increased the number of volunteer academic and experience
examiners on the BOE to 120 from 70. • We hired additional staff to support the application process.
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