ASSOCIATION
When members of the public were asked what they think APEGA’s role is, the top two reasons given were to regulate engineers or geoscientists, at 29 per cent, and to establish or maintain professional standards, at 25 per cent. Albertans are also becoming more familiar with APEGA’s brand. Recall of our logo was at 46 per cent, which is an increase of 13 percentage points from 2011. Part of that may be due to a public advertising campaign, which included newspaper, television, and billboard ads showing how Professionals in Engineering and Geoscience help enhance the public’s quality of life. One in 10 members of the public surveyed recalled seeing one or more of the ads, and the majority agreed that we should continue the public awareness campaign.
Public perceptions of APEGA are also positive, although familiarity with what we do is limited. Overall, 43 per cent of Albertans are aware of APEGA, the results suggest. Twelve per cent of those surveyed knew, unaided, that we administer the provincial legislation governing the engineering and geoscience professions. When asked, 31 per cent said they had heard of APEGA. This is consistent with 2011, but it’s up 10 percentage points from 2006. Compared to other member-based organizations, it’s a high level of awareness. Public familiarity with APEGA’s overall role remains low. Only 35 per cent of those surveyed said there were familiar with our role, although this is improving. In 2011 the percentage was 30 per cent; in 2006 it was 23 per cent.
While progress has been made in many areas, there’s limited opportunity to decrease negative public perceptions about the professions — because they’re already extremely low. The challenge is to move “neutral” and “don’t know” responses to positives.
RESEARCH PROJECT METHODOLOGY
Member Survey • 7,518 APEGA Members completed the email survey, a 15 per cent response rate from those we reached. • Overall, the results are considered accurate to within plus-or-minus 1.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. • Data were collected between November 18 and December 1, 2014. • All APEGA Members who had earlier agreed to receive our emails were invited to participate — 49,495 email invitations were successfully delivered. • Final data were weighted to ensure the sample’s composition reflected that of the actual APEGA membership. • Several new questions were added to the 2014 survey. Because of this, the median interview length was 24 minutes — considerably longer than 15 minutes in 2011. The length will be evaluated before future surveys are conducted. Public Survey • The online survey gathered results from a representative sample of 801 adult Albertans. • Overall, the results are considered accurate to within plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. • Data were collected between November 17 and 25, 2014. • Using the 2011 Census of Canada , final data were weighted to ensure that the sample’s regional, age, and gender distribution reflected that of the actual Alberta population aged 18 years or older.
PUBLIC SURVEY APEGA Professionals Provide Benefits to Albertans
*In 2011, Professional Geoscientists were categorized as Professional Geologists and Professional Geoscientists. This percentage is an average of the percentages from the two designations
FALL 2015 PEG | 63
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