internationally educated graduates
experience requirements
In order to meet the experience requirements for licensure as a Professional Member or Foreign Licensee:
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You must have at least 4 years of acceptable engineering or geoscience work experience; and
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You must have at least one year of acceptable equivalent Canadian engineering or geoscience experience.
Four-years Experience
You must have at least four years of acceptable engineering or geoscience level experience under the supervision and control of a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientistt. APEGA recognizes that many countries do not have licensed Professional Engineers or Professional Geoscientists. APEGA will consider your experience outside Canada as long as it was obtained under the supervision and control of an engineer or geoscientist in that country.
For detailed information on what APEGA considers to be acceptable engineering or geoscience experience, please refer to the Experience
Requirements for Licensure – Guideline.
One Year Equivalent Canadian Experience Requirement
APEGA requires that all Professional Members and Foreign Licensees must have at least one year equivalent Canadian experience:
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This is required to ensure sufficient exposure to Canadian codes, standards, climate conditions, ethics, culture, business practices and workplace environment
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This experience must be at the professional engineering or geoscience level
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This experience must be obtained under the supervision and control of a licensed Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist.
If you have immigrated to Canada it is not illegal to practice engineering or geoscience and gain this requirement one year Canadian experience as long as you are working under the supervision and control of a licensed Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist in Canada.
References
APEGA will require references for all your work experience. References must be individuals who have personal, first-hand knowledge of your work experience. References should be engineers or geoscientists in the country in which you worked. The best references are from engineer or geoscience supervisors; however, APEGA will also accept references from engineering and geoscience colleagues.
References for your Canadian work experience must come from Professional Engineers or Professional Geoscientists with personal knowledge of your Canadian work experience.
APEGA requires at least three references, but may require more references depending on the circumstances. For APEGA to consider waiving confirmatory examinations on the basis of your work experience (refer to Academic Requirements) you will need to provide references to cover at least ten years of high level work experience. This may require more than three references. If you have more than ten years of work experience, it is to your benefit to provide references to cover that entire period.
When you apply to APEGA, you will need to provide us with the names and contact information of your references. APEGA will then contact your references directly. Do not have your references contact APEGA.
If you know the email addresses of your references, you may provide those to APEGA. APEGA will forward Reference Questionnaires to those references electronically. Your references can then complete the Reference Questionnaires and return them to APEGA electronically. However, APEGA will not accept completed Reference Questionnaires from generic email addresses such as yahoo.com or hotmail.com.
If your references complete the Reference Questionnaires in a language other than English, APEGA will have them translated at APEGA's expense.
For more information, please contact the APEGA registration department.
Detailed Description of Work Experience
When you apply to APEGA, you will need to provide us with a detailed description of your work experience. Please refer to the Work Experience Record Instructions for detailed instructions.
For more information, please contact the APEGA registration department.