Promoting Career Planning Through the Use of an Engineering Experience Evaluation for Licensure

Professional registration (P.Eng.) applicants in B.C. must use the Engineers & Geoscientists BC web-based Competency Experience Reporting System (CERS) to have their work experience evaluated. CERS measures competencies – measures of the ability to perform the tasks and roles of an occupational category to standards expected and recognized by employers and the community at large – in seven competency categories, each of which can be related to the twelve CEAB graduate attributes.As part of a university-level course in engineering professionalism, students were given an assignment to use CERS to conduct a self-evaluation and make recommendations for their own future professional development.To measure the perceived effectiveness of the assignment, students completed three identical questionnaires: one before the topic was introduced, one after a guest speaker presentation on the topic, and one after submitting the assignment. The questionnaire measured each student’s degree of knowledge or understanding of ten different aspects of professional registration and professional development. The results indicated a progressive increase in agreement between the first, second and third questionnaire for all ten questions, with the greatest increases relating to registration procedures and students’ identification of shortcomings of their own experience.Usage of the competency assessment system by regulators is being expanded in Canada, which potentially provides the opportunity to conduct similar student assignments within other engineering programs.