I'd be fairly confident in saying you don't need to be a P.Eng to work onboard ships. Transport Canada or equivalent marine certificates will be required. (Are'nt all marine bridge & engineering certs recognised worldwide given that it's all regulated by the IMO?)

I'd also be fairly confident in saying that getting a job on BC Ferries, a heavily unionised operation, as a newly landed PR would be next to impossible. To learn more about the BC Ferries 'culture' google 'Queen of the North sinking' and read the accident report, court case coverage, gossip and sordid detail surrounding that incident.

heh. there were some interesting convos round the inlaws when that went down.

Also, those new super big fancy ferries from Germany? that they spent millions on? Too expensive to run most of the time, I hear. yes.

I do hope you're right. I'm going to give it a go. I think the difficult bit will be getting the one year of Canadian experience under a PEng's supervision. I'm not sure how this is administered or policed, but I'll be looking into it.

Thats the bit that has loosened up a bit (in Ontario at least) I think, it was always a "chicken or egg" situation before.

I am a chartered engineer with the IMechE in the UK and I've researched this quite a lot, here's my take on the matter.

Firstly in Canada you can't call yourself an Engineer without a degree, the technician or HND equivalent tends to be called "technologist". As Iank pointed out to become P.Eng you need a period of supervision and to sit exams. In this respect I think its a case of double standards because there is supposed to be mutual recognition between member states under the washing and sydney accords - this seems not to be the case for Canada as they stipulate 1 year north american experience to get P.Eng!

As far as your marine engineering background goes. Unless you've got a degree you can't go for P.Eng.

Also my cousin who lives in Canada says that the vocational qualifications are much harder for employers to equate than straight degrees.

BC Ferries; I remember my wife telling about that incident...wasn't it (supposedly) to do with a couple of the crew having some 'personal time'?

I do have a degree (B.Eng (Hons)) and am a Member of IMarEST but only an I.Eng and I.Mar.Eng. as I'm not quite old/experienced enough to go for chartered...plus I can't afford to keep paying IMarEST the incredibly extortionate fees!

I read that under the Sidney Accord (http://www.accreditation.org/accords...e=SydneyAccord), Canada is supposed to recognise I.Eng within it's professional structure as a Certified Engineering or Applied Science Technologist. Is that enough to get you by?

From what I can tell, I can become a provisional member (applications approx $400-500), go to an ethics seminar ($360-400), Provisional Practice Exam ($300) then work under supervision for a year before paying another $400 ish to register. That's providing I don't have to sit any other exams?

From what I am reading here (on the forum), I can still work as an Engineer (on shore) without a P.Eng but it just means I can't sign off on certain things and get sued?

So, the big questions is, what's the real benefit of being a P.Eng, other than (hopefuly) some more pay?

Networking and job opportunities.

I'm an ex-RN clanky working on my PEng application in Alberta. The Washington Accord could help you if your BEng is accredited - you can look it up on the Engineering Council website. However, provincial engineering associations will want to see transcripts and satisfy themselves of the academic goodness of your course; mutual recognition agreements are made at the federal level and provincial bodies are keen to maintain their independence.
Regarding the law, you can look up the relevant provincial legislation. You'll see that engineering is very broadly defined, and provincial associations seem to have attracted the kind of officials who like investigating compliance issues. If they are suspicious, they will come and investigate your role and decide whether it is engineering or not, then pursue enforcement action appropriately. All in the name of public safety you understand...

Hmm...I'll have to have a look at that.

I guess it's safe to assume then that they won't recognise any of my RN qualifications (Apprenticeship, HND, MCQ etc)?

How have you found it working towards the P.Eng? I'm assuming that you don;t get the usual level of heads up prior to the exams...?

The PEO only seem to do exams twice a year, so no problem with a heads up for them.

That's a bonus that they do them twice a year, at least there's a bit of flexibility. Seems you can only sit them twice...though if you can't pass a multi-choice exam on the third attempt....

AGR: Having looked on the UKEC website, it seems my dodgy 1 year Pompey Uni top up degree is only, and probably only JUST, I.Eng accredited Though it does state BSc instead of BEng???

Knew that scheme seemed a bit dodgy when I volunteered for it!

The Sydney Accord doesn't apply to IEng in itself, but to qualifications accredited by the EC-UK. Contact the CCTT: http://www.cctt.ca/
also see: http://www.washingtonaccord.org/Sydney/signatories.cfm

However, if you qualify, this means that Canadian institutes should recogise you as meeting the academic component of their requirements to be an engineering technologist. You still would have to do meet the same exams/experience/language requirements as any Canadian graduate.

Also check if your specific institute (IMarEST) has any agreements with its Canadian peer institutes as sometimes these go beyond the Washington and Sydney Accords.

Mate,

I too have a similar background, I'm an ME SUY, from the timings you look like an UY (?). If you were a greenie you can apply as a Federal Skilled Worker as you come under the industrial electrician (maritime) category. You will have to check the CIC website (and NOC list for the 4 figure code) to see if this is still the case as the categories in the FSW scheme have been re-vised around 22 Apr. If your a clanky by background then I'm not sure.

I have recently submitted our applications (last month) under this scheme.

The IMarEST/IEng membership is equivalent to Engineering Technologist wrt education only (in Ontario that is - sry thats not overly helpful but that's where we are hoping for), but exams will still need to be undertaken until you can legally state that title. There is a section in the applications asking for membership of professional bodies - so it can only help.

Done the MSc with Pompey Uni yet? Engineering and Management was fairly straight forward (60 pts for SEMC, 60 for MCQ leaving 60 to complete)

PS Put my notice in a month ago.

Good Luck

Martin

We are looking for support for the Subs that the UK sold to the Canadians a while ago in BC. If you can send me your CV I could pass it around.

Congrats on getting the notice in and the application started!

I'm quite fortunate that I'm going under the Spouse/Family Visa as my Mrs in Canadian so I shouldn't have to worry about the Skilled Worker schemes. What is tricky is getting all our random qualifications recognised...have you had any joy with that?

I did go through as a UY and did the 1 year at Pompey, didn't know about the Masters scheme though, is that one of the distance learning ones? Does the 120 credits equate to 2/3 of the final year or is it the full final year you have to do...I'm not really all that clued up on degrees? Seems like a good way to spend some more of those ELCs! Have you managed to get to grips with all the courses and the Career Transition Workshops yet?

With regards the PEng thing, it seems to me the best advice so far is to not worry too much yet, get a job as an 'Technologist' and worry about the PEng bit when the time comes to sit back and sign of paperwork?

Really appreciate all the useful info from all of you on here, I don't feel quite so concerned about finding work now! Well, not until they read my CV anyway...why can't everyone in the world write them the same way??!!