Academic and Experience Requirements for your APEGA License Application

Academic and Experience Requirements for your APEGA License Application

Over the past few months, I received several inquiries on how and where Filipino Migrant Engineers need to start their application process to go back to their Profession. It’s a good thing that the Alberta Filipino Journal has online portals that can retrieve the previous issues where I wrote those articles tackling the step by step process. The online portal really helps because it lets the Alberta Filipino Journal reach Filipinos who are not only already here in Canada as immigrants but those who are also planning to migrate.

In this month’s issue, I will be summarizing the two most important things that they (Applicant) need to accomplish.

Academic Requirement

The APEGA outlined a process on how to submit your academic documentation requirements to the World Education Services (WES).

All applicants will be evaluated against the APEGA syllabus in engineering and geoscience. Applicants who do not meet academic requirements could be refused, prescribed examinations to make up for perceived deficiencies or asked to write confirmatory examinations to confirm the quality, depth and breadth of their education.

Basic guidelines were published in the APEGA website to wit the courses taken in the Philippines will be compared to the acceptable course equivalent and syllabi. The course lists are available at the APEGA website and is available at the University of Alberta and University of Calgary that match APEGA’s course equivalents. The syllabi and exams explain what the course and technical exams will cover. Engineering applicants must complete the requirements listed under Preliminary and Basic Studies and Complementary Studies, as well as the requirements specified for their specific discipline.

The final review of academic documents is done by APEGA’s Board of Examiners (BOE), and it is the BOE that ultimately determines their depth, breadth, and acceptability.

World Education Services (WES) is an academic-assessment agency designated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to provide educational credential assessments for degrees earned outside of Canada. WES is the only academic-assessment agency recognized by APEGA, and only International Credential Advantage Package (ICAP) reports are accepted.

A WES assessment that states you have a “4-year undergraduate degree” is only the first step in the academic assessment process. APEGA’s Board of Examiners must also conduct a full review of your academic credentials.

WES ICAP Report:
• Verifies the authenticity of your academic documents.
• Establishes the equivalent level of your academic credentials compared with the Canadian university system.

APEGA’s Board of Examiners:
• Reviews your degree to ensure it is a degree in engineering or geoscience.
• Confirms the acceptability of the course content and performance of your degree.
• Ensures that your degree meets the legal requirements for licensure.

How to Obtain a World Education Services ICAP Report
• Register for APEGA’s Member Self-Service Centre and receive your ID number. This ID number will be required to order your WES Report.
• Follow the instructions to continue to the WES website for the next step of the application process.
• Follow the instructions provided by WES. If you already have an evaluation report from WES, you may need to upgrade that report to an International Credential Advantage Package (ICAP).
• WES will send the completed evaluation report to APEGA digitally. Physical copies will not be accepted.

What you need to do:
You must have an APEGA ID number before you begin a WES application.
Follow the steps below to complete your WES application:
• Select Canada for your evaluation.
• Select WES Standard Application.
• Add Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) as a recipient.
• Select WES ICAP Course-by-Course as the evaluation type (required by APEGA).

If you already have a WES application, it must be upgraded to a WES ICAP Course-by-Course evaluation.
Follow the country-specific document requirements and arrange for your documents to be delivered to WES.

It is important to submit all your academic documents to WES which include but not limited to the following:
• Official Transcript of Record.
• Copy of Your Diploma.
• Course-by course description of the subjects you took from your First Year College until your Graduation in your Engineering Degree. This will give the evaluator a clearer picture of the topics and subjects you took from Philippines’ Tertiary Institution and compare those to Canadian Matrix of courses.
• Certificate from your School that “English is the Medium of Instructions”.

Please take note – that the documents mentioned above must be sent directly to WES by the School. Alternatively, you can place all of those documents in a sealed envelope and send it to WES through FEDEX, DHL or UPS.

The roadblock for most Filipino Engineers in continuing this application process is when they got a credential evaluation that states “3-year diploma” wherein the only option left is to take the Technical Exams which entails a lot of preparation and cost. And at the end of the day, it is still your decision whether you are going to pursue your professional status as Engineer or re-direct your path towards becoming a Technologist. Pursuing your path toward a Certified Engineering Technologist (CET) is governed by The Association of Science & Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET). The process is different as well as the requirements. I will continue to write about the requirements for ASET in the next issue of the AFJ.

Experience Requirement
Recently, the APEGA defines new procedure in documenting and submitting your Experience Record as form part of your application package. If you started your application before May 2, 2018 – the applicant is not covered of these changes.

The information provided in this article are lifted from the APEGA website (www.apega.ca) and for those Internationally Educated Engineers that wish to apply must follow these new procedures.

The Work Experience Requirement for registration in the Province of Alberta as Professional Engineer is very crucial in the approval of your license. The Applicant must complete two forms to confirm their work experience: the Work Record Validator List (WRVL) and the Competency-Based Assessment Tool (CBAT). The WRVL measures the duration of an applicant’s experience, while the CBAT captures the content.

The WRVL is used to confirm that you have obtained at least 48 months of professional-level engineering experience and the WRVL may be referenced by a manager, Human Resources staff, or other person who can confirm your work chronology. This reference does not need to have in-depth technical knowledge of the work that you performed.

The CBAT is used to confirm that you have achieved proficiency in the 22 competencies and indicators required for registration as a Professional Engineer. You can provide multiple indicators to support each competency. Each competency must also be validated by a professional member or senior practitioner who took technical responsibility for your work and witnessed you perform the specified indicators.

Competency-Based Assessment Tool (CBAT)

When completing your CBAT – each page of the form, you will provide:
• at least one situation in which you proved competency
• several actions you took within the situation that support your competency
• the outcome of your actions. This should include a basic summary of the solution, product, process, or other outcome of the situation and your actions

APEGA’s Board of Examiners will assess your competence on the information you and your validators provide—and nothing else. In writing your CBAT, you should write it in first person (“I” not “We”) to show that you really take the ownership of your statements in the CBAT.

A detailed example of writing your experience record will be my topic in next month’s issue. So please keep a copy of Alberta Filipino Journal and I will give a step by step approach in writing your work experience record.

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