STRENGTHENING THE PILLARS OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
By guiding and supporting our licenced professionals and permit holders in three important pillars—individual practice, corporate practice, and practice standards and guidelines—we ensure the safe and ethical practice of engineering and geoscience in Alberta. In 2017, we embarked on a journey to strengthen our processes, to educate those who practise the professions, and to create greater capacity to support our licensed professionals. This journey includes: • creating, reviewing, and updating our professional practice standards and guidelines • optimizing the administration of APEGA’s mandatory continuing professional development program for our licenced professionals • conducting professional practice reviews of our permit to practice holders Professional practice standards and guidelines expand upon the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act to provide concrete details on the obligations and responsibilities required of our licenced professionals. To keep these documents relevant, it is important that they are reviewed regularly. Accomplishing this requires a comprehensive effort from the volunteers who provide subject-matter expertise, the other members we reach through consultation, and our professional and other staff. PRACTICE STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES
APEGA is also reviewing and updating core standards that assist licenced professionals in meeting their legal and ethical responsibilities. Including member consultation, the process will take 18 months. These core standards are: • Authenticating Professional Work Products (moving to member consultations in fall 2018) • Relying on the Work of Others and Outsourcing (starting in mid-2018) • Professional Practice Management Plan (starting in 2019) CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Alberta’s citizens expect our licensed professionals, as part of self-regulation, to commit to career- long learning through our mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) program. Members who do not comply risk the loss of their licences to practise. In a 2017 pilot project to optimize the administration of CPD, we reviewed the CPD submissions of 100 members in three categories: • members who failed to report any CPD hours in the past three years • members who had reported CPD but had not met minimum requirements • members who had met requirements The pilot resulted in many learnings for APEGA and the licensed professionals we reviewed. Overall, reviewees learned that reporting is not difficult once they understand the basics—much more of their informal activity is eligible for CPD than they had thought. We know that we must spread these lessons across our membership. We will look for more ways of sharing them, helping licenced professionals meet their CPD obligations.
In 2017, APEGA released two standards: • the new Professional Responsibilities in
Completion and Assurance of Wetland Science, Design and Engineering Work in Alberta , in cooperation with nine other regulatory bodies • the updated Evaluation of Oil and Gas Reserves and Resources for Public Disclosure
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APEGA Annual Report 2017
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