REGISTRATION RENEWAL
New Tools Will Streamline Assessment of Engineering Applicants
WHAT IS COMPETENCY-BASED ASSESSMENT?
APEGA’s CBA model does things differ- ently. It asks applicants to explain how they meet specific competencies in 22 different areas. Ten of those areas are technical, and the other 12 are related to communication, project and financial management, team ef- fectiveness, professionalism, and the societal implications of engineering. Here’s more detail on what one of the 10 technical competencies requires. The competency is for knowledge of regulations, codes, standards and safety, including local engineering practices and procedures. Applicants will be asked to describe: • a situation that required them to use this competency (I designed a substation switching room.) • the action they took (I applied the following codes and standards to my design.) • the final outcome (my design was successful with no deficiencies or code deviations detected in final construction.) For all 22 competencies, the three types of explanation will be the same. Once UNDER DEVELOPMENT — A NEW WAY TO EVALUATE GEOSCIENCE APPLICANTS Geoscientists Canada is developing improvements for assessing geoscience applicants. Like CBA, a project called Admission Support Tools (AST) aims to enhance assessments through a competency profile for geoscience practice. The tool will describe core abilities and skills that a geoscientist needs for independent practice. APEGA hopes to be the first geoscience regulator in Canada to implement this new assessment tool. Depending on progress at the national level, that could happen by late 2017 or early 2018.
Two big changes coming in 2017 will enhance how APEGA evaluates the work experience and academic qualifications of engineering applicants. Our goal is straightforward: to create a fairer, faster, and more sustainable way to process applications for licensure. First up will be the introduction of Competency-Based Assessment (CBA). In 2017, we’ll start rolling out this online tool for evaluating the work experience and skills of Professional Engineer and Licensee applicants. A related Competency Self- Assessment Worksheet was launched in November of this year. See sidebar, page 15. We also plan to introduce another online tool, called the Academic Assessment Method, to help us better evaluate the educational credentials of engineering applicants. Together, these tools will ensure that those applying for licensure are fully com- petent to work independently, while provid- ing a fair, objective, and transparent way to measure an applicant’s work experience and education — especially when these have hap- pened outside of Canada. In recent years, this has become especially important. Applica- tions to APEGA more than doubled over the past decade, reaching over 9,100 in 2014 and dropping to 7,850 in 2015. Nearly half of our applicants are internationally trained. We’ve been working over the past few years to streamline our registration tools and service to tackle a backlog caused by the growing volume and increased complex- ity of applications. We’ve hired more staff, implemented new policies and procedures, and overhauled our hardware and software systems. New assessment methods are the next step in this renewal. As always, our top priority is to uphold the public interest through reasonable and appropriate qualification standards. We believe we can do this while decreasing overall processing times for all applicants.
CBA is an evaluation model that’s has been used successfully for engineering applicants in British Columbia for the past 10 years. There’s also been discussion at the national level about implementing a Canada-wide competency assessment system, but that’s still a few years from completion. Our need is now, so APEGA began developing a CBA model for Alberta in early 2015, supported by an Innovation Fund grant from the Government of Alberta. Why CBA? Simply put, it’s a superior way of connecting an applicant’s work experience to the core skills all Professional Engineers need to do their job competently, regardless of discipline. For international applicants, CBA makes it easier for applicants to under- stand the exact experience qualifications required to obtain a licence and how their skills will be recognized in Alberta. Even if their experience is not typical to Alberta — working in a rubber factory, perhaps — the competencies developed may be well suited to industries here. CBA is also a less complicated and more consistent way for the APEGA Board of Examiners (BOE) to determine whether candidates meet Alberta qualification standards. The role of the BOE, a volunteer board, is to evaluate applications. Currently, APEGA asks applicants to describe at least 48 months of previous work tasks on a document called the Work Experience Record (WER). After references verify an applicant’s work experience, the BOE determines what level of expertise was demonstrated by each task. Applicants sometimes require staff assistance to document their experience in a way that the board will understand, which sometimes extends processing times.
14 | PEG WINTER 2016
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