Experience Review
Calling All Members-in-Training – this Applies to You
You have been registered as a Member-in-Training with APEGS and you are now working on your experience reports and maybe even studying for the Professional Practice Exam. After many years of hard work and preparation, you can sit back and relax until you obtain the required four years of acceptable experience required to apply as a professional member. Your obligations are complete!
Wrong! The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program applies to both professional members and members-in-training. Members-In-Training are required to participate.
In 2015 only seven per cent of Members-In Training reported CPD Credits with APEGS. This is 132 members out of a total of 1,778. Because of this, the Professional Development Committee is looking at ways to increase awareness of the CPD Program with members-in training.
The CPD Program meets APEGS’s statutory requirements as well as the professional obligations of our members. Section 5 of The Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act states that the objects of the Association are:
a) to ensure the proficiency and competency of members in the practice of professional engineering or the practice of professional geoscience in order to safeguard the public;
b) to regulate the practice of professional engineering and the practice of professional geoscience by members in accordance with this Act and the bylaws;
c) to promote and improve the proficiency and competency of members;
d) to foster the practice of professional engineering and the practice of professional geoscience by members in a manner that is in the public interest.
Subsections a), c) and in part d) speak directly to the need for a program such as CPD.
As well, subsection 20(2)(d) of the Regulatory Bylaws (the Code of Ethics) requires APEGS members to:
“keep themselves informed in order to maintain their competence, strive to advance the body of knowledge within which they practise and provide opportunities for professional development of their subordinates.”
This includes Members-in-Training. Learning does not stop after you have completed your formal university education.
The CPD Program provides members with a framework to plan and to report on their continuing professional development activities. There are six activity categories which include:
Professional Practice
• Formal Activity
• Informal Activity
• Participation
• Presentations
• Contributions to Knowledge
Perhaps you are not working full-time or are on parental leave. With the variety of categories, you will likely be able to report something. Special consideration may be given to members in various situations.
As you read this at the start of 2017, take a moment to reflect on why you chose to become an engineer or geoscientist. Then review your activities for 2016 and submit your CPD credits for the past year if you have not done so already.
The Professional Development Committee is working on a plan for mandatory reporting. This topic will be further addressed in 2017 and 2018. For more information on the current program, refer to the Continuing Professional Development Member Guidelines available on the APEGS website.