SARASOTA2013

Hi-
I am a British Dental Technician / Laboratory owner , looking for employment in Canada.If you have any helpful tips as to how to start looking please let me know.My wife is also a qualified Science Teacher looking for work.
Many thanks.

Simon Legree

Hello and welcome to BE. The best place to start is by reading Wiki on the blue bar above, fourth tab from the left. It contains a wealth of information. When you have read this come back with some specific questions and someone will doubtless have some answers. Good luck.

SARASOTA2013

Hi there-
Thank-you so much , there is some really useful information here.We are feeling a little lost at the moment , so this is a very good start.
Thank-you.

Golden-eye

Hi My husband and I are both Dental Technicians and moved to Canada 24 years ago..

You need to decide which Province you plan to move to as there are different board exams in each Province..

You can work 'under' a licenced Tech or as a temporary registrant while taking the exams.. long story, it's cleaned up its act over the years from being blatantly protectionist. Long story.....

Anyway feel free to PM me for info

SARASOTA2013

Hi-
Thank-you so much , we really appreciate your advice.We didn't realise that my husband as a fully qualified Dental Technician in the U.K. would need to take exams .Our preferred location would be the British Columbia / Vancouver territories of Canada.Any information that you could provide would be gratefully received.Thank-you.

Aviator

[quote=SARASOTA2013;11048257Our preferred location would be the British Columbia / Vancouver territories of Canada.[/quote]

Just so you are prepared for when you get here. British Columbia is a province, not a territory and Vancouver is a city within BC.

Golden-eye

You have to get licenced in Canada. both my husband and I were 'fully qualified Dental Techs' in the U.K. the College recognizes the qualifications, that is why he won't have to 'go back to school' rather re-take exams..
If you want to PM me, I will gladly go over the process, what is involved etc.

It's not like in the UK, the exam isn't in all aspects of Dental Technology, it's either Crown & Bridge (just the metal work, P&C. framework for a crown as well as FGC) Ceramics (which also involves some metal work eg making a coping for a PJC) Metal Frameworks.. Dentures, or Orthodontics.. So no having to cover everything like we do in the U.K.


I should add, that you don't 'NEED' to be licenced in Canada, you can work in a lab 'under' a licenced Tech.. The salary would be less if you are not licenced and you would not be able to be self employed.
..
.
.

johntheScot

Not a dental tech or a teacher but

quick google search for your professions

bcteacherregulation.ca

College of Dental Technicians of BC

be prepared to have your professionalism seemingly insulted and questioned as you will most likely have to work under some obviously superior canadian trained "professional" until all your paper work is sorted so get a jump on it asap.

may also be worth a separate post about the teaching as a lot of people on here seem to have experience of that system or a search of this forum will give a lot of info

the average wage for a dental tech according to the www is $37K (i equate to about 20K uk) might be higher in Van Golden-eye might be able to advise you there and you might not get that till you are licensed it is not a great sum to live off. teachers seem to take a few years to get steady work it seams supply teaching for a few years seams to be the norm or working a side job and supply teaching. so you might be in for a tough few years financially till you get established depends on what you are coming from in the uk and the motivation for the move.

Golden-eye

EXCELLENT POST ~ Couldn't have written it better myself, as someone who 22 + years ago had to suffer through this system, can't write down what happened suffice to say the Chairman ( a lawyer ) resigned from the board the day I decided to for want of a better phrase 'Kick ass'

Aviator

As do the British professions. One cannot just turn up in the UK and start practicing because you have been in the profession 20+years somewhere else.

Some professions have reciprocal agreements, not just to play nice, but because they have a common standard. This is especially so where licensing is required. The licensing authority has a duty to the populous at large and their members to set a standard and ensure that is maintained.

I had to a brief proficiency test and check ride before starting work. My CAN license was issued on the UK license and experience. It does not work the other way though, a CAN or FAA license holder cannot swap that for a UK license without a battery of written test. The only thing they can count is hours of experience.

The rules in the UK are changing in 2014 for flight crew licensing, making it harder for non UK license holders to fly even for recreation.

Practically it would be hard to check all professional standards around the world and accepts some and not others. There has to be some benchmark to maintain a national standard.

Golden-eye

The problem I faced was that (at the time) People from a 18 month college course in Canada were passing yet those with Masters degrees from Germany, Final and Advanced certificates (with Distinctions) from the U.K were failing.. Many people with years & years of high quality & experience.
After the 1st year and being told 'not to rock the boat, 'The Board' which is what it was known as at the time.. was 'all powerful' I did some investigating and felt I had enough to warrant taking it to the Minister of Health, the Health Critic as well as those in charge of setting up the Board..
The problem was there was a conflict of interest, if you wanted to complain about a particular board member you had to complain to him about him !! It was a joke, so I took it above..
I managed to get the owner of the lab I worked for to convince the Board that he was looking for an employee and would like to write to all the Temporary registrants, he was able to get hold of 'contact details' from that I just 'hit the phone' explaining my position and asking them if they had passed or failed.. After being a little guarded at 1st the stories all started coming out and a pattern emerged...
In the jurisprudence it clearly stated 'A pass would be awarded if a mark greater than 60% was achieved. One person I contacted, someone with a lot of experience & German qualification had been awarded either 77% or 82% (I'm a little fuzzy now ) Yet they failed him anyway as they didn't like some aspect of his work.. Very subjective in a practical exam..
When I asked 'The Board' about marking criteria I was told they didn't use any, I then contacted the person responsible for setting up the marking criteria, He set up an emergency meeting with the board where the German guys results were overturned and he passed..
What was awesome, is although he lived in a different part of BC to myself we were both heading 'home' for Christmas, he turned up at YVR 8 hours early so he could 'buy me a drink' He said that prior to my contacting him he felt that perhaps he wasn't as good as he thought he was, he questioned his ability and seriously thought about returning to Germany....
He hit the nail on the head when he said in a school system you know if your fellow classmates pass or fail, but for us, we don't as we all just turn up took the exams and leave, never knowing each other or each others results.
Interestingly, most of those on the examining committee were lab owners.. those 'passing from the school system' were not experienced enough or grounded in enough parts of the field to be likely to set up in competition.. Strange eh.. Out of those that did pass after putting forward a list of Techs I felt should be remarked many went on to open their own labs !!

This all happened over 20 years ago, I hope that I somehow effected lasting change on how newcomers and their qualifications are treated.

johntheScot

dont disagree, Canadians im sure are writing the same comments on a expat forum somewhere about our system. i will however make the following points.

Canada seems to licence a lot more professions than the uk.(not saying this is a bad thing just pointing out a fact).

UK licence professions are administered at the national level in Canada they are mostly regulated at the provincial level be grateful that aviation is a federal matter.

this means that the uk organisations are 10 to 20 times the size of provincial Canadian organisations this means they can employ professional staff have department dedicated to overseas applicants etc. these small organisations also have difficulty turning these applications round in a reasonable time

A lot of these organisations are run by committee with these committee's interpreting the rules and standards that you are to be tested to. these committee's are made up of peers with no requirement for specialist training.

I am sure your test and check flight were conducted by a federally licensed examiner but the equivalent in some professions is a couple of pilots from westjet would sit down and look at your log books and a overview of the requirements for your uk training then hop in with you for a test flight then have a chat about it decide if you meet the requirements.

Sounds like the experience goldeneye had reflects this.

also to add to that they will take a year to look at your log books then if they are happy with them you can apply for the first test will take 6 months to get an appointment pass that and we can book your practical will take another 6 months to get that appointment.

this timeline is caused by the small provincial organisation running on volunteers and having ever larger numbers of overseas applicants to assess

nothing wrong with regulation and licencing but some of these organisations are failing to give overseas applicants a fair chance

SARASOTA2013

Hi there-
Happy Christmas to you all in Canada.
God Bless You.

SARASOTA2013

Hi there,
Happy New Year to you all.
I am that Dental Technician still looking for a job in Canada , someone has just told me that the cut off age for getting a work permit in Australia is 50 years.
And that may be true for Canada as well , does anyone out there know the answer.
Thank-you.

christmasoompa

There's no upper age limit for Canadian TWP's.

HTH.