PhilippaKatex

Good Afternoon British Expats.

I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand the process of becoming a professional engineer in Canada.

I am currently in the process of getting an ECA through WES and then hopefully have enough points to get our ITA. But I'm also doing some research on jobs in Canada. We are hoping to move to either Alberta or Saskatchewan.

Currently I am a Senior Manufacturing Engineer working for a defence contractor here in the UK. I have a BEng in Computer Aided Engineering, HNC & ONC in Manufacturing Engineering, NVQ Level 3 & 4 and have completed an Accredited Apprenticeship. I've also 12 years experience within Engineering (mainly aerospace but currently shipbuilding).

Over here our 'Engineers' aren't regulated like they are in Canada - anyone can call themselves 'Engineers' (which offends me as someone who's trained hard to become an 'Engineer'), so I'm presuming that I'll have to become a professional engineer once I'm in Canada to maximise job opportunities.

Has anyone of you kind folk on here gone through the process?
Any advice, tips etc is greatly appreciated. No nasty comments please

Kind regards,
Philippa

JGK

You'll need to go through these guys to see how you stand.

Saskatchewan

Alberta

For a professional engineer it's normally a 4-year degree plus 4 years as an Engineer in training (under the supervision of a Professional Engineer [P.Eng]) before you're qualified.

gracey1982

Something to consider is to make sure your degree is on the Washington Accord list.

https://engineerscanada.ca/accredita...hington-accord

If it is not on this list as a recognised degree from a recognised university you will have to apply through the experience route with 10 years experience. Trust me. I am still going through this with 15 years engineering experience and 10 years in Canada.

Siouxie

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...ineeringCanada

BananaMonarchy

British BEng degrees are accredited internationally under the Sydney Accord, not the Washington Accord.

Only doctorates, MEng degrees and MSc degrees are accredited under the Washington Accord

The Engineering Council state in the second link

“In the UK Washington Accord programmes are ones accredited for the purpose of Chartered Engineer (CEng) registration. Since 1999 these have been:

· an accredited Bachelors in Engineering with Honours (BEng(Hons)) degree plus an accredited Masters degree or an accredited Engineering Doctorate (EngD)

· an accredited integrated Masters in Engineering (MEng) degree”

However, if you have CEng status then Manitoba will accept a BEng degree under the Washington Accord if you have completed ‘Further learning” (which does not necessarily mean a Masters degree, there are other work based options)

Refer to section 5.3.3. “ Engineering degrees from the United Kingdom” in the Manual of Admissions.

To my knowledge this is the only way to satisfy the academic requirement of PEng without having a postgraduate degree. However, this is just Manitoba, the other provinces may have a different policy .

BananaMonarchy

Hi Phillippa

Unfortunately, you will not be given a PEng (Professional Engineers) licence before or shortly after you arrive in Canada. This is because all provinces require at least 1 year of Canadian work experience, and there is no way around this.

Some of them issue a provisional licence to immigrants who would satisfy the work experience requirements, if not for the 1 year Canadian experience requirement.

However, your British BEng degree will not satisfy the academic requirements for a PEng licence, because it is of only 3 years duration, and therefore not accredited under the Washington Accord. Even if it was, Ontario for instance, does not accept the Washington Accord anyway.

As you are interested in Alberta you may be interested in applying to APEGA as a Professional Licensee. Your degree would satisfy the educational requirements because it is accredited under the Sydney Accord.

I suggest you follow this advice regarding Ontario. PEO is prejudiced toward and discriminates against foreigners.

Some provinces are easier for immigrants to acquire a licence from than others. British Columbia and Alberta are the easiest. Saskatchewan is difficult.

Saskatchewan will require an ICAP course-by-course evaluation from WES. Even if this evaluation concludes that your degree is equivalent to a Canadian 4 year degree they will require that you to do a self-assesement. This means you have to provide a syllabus of all the courses you studied during your degree. They will compare these to the syllabus of a Canadian degree and if there are more than six deficiencies your application will be rejected. Even if they conclude that your degree is equivalent to a Canadian degree they will assign you 3 technical confirmation exams. The only way around this is to have an MSc degree.

According to this article the Canadian Engineering Licensing Associations do not accept part time or distance learning Masters degrees, so be careful if you decide to do this.

lb77

I wouldn't even consider Sask, nothing to see or do there! As said before easy part see which province recognizes you Degree, hard part finding a company to employ you for a year till you get your Canadian experience under your belt. Took 15 months for.me in 2013 will be longer now because of Covid, I went through APEGA.

PhilippaKatex

Hi Guys - Thank you ever so much for the valued information.

DigitalGhost

Once you're an approved immigrant and receive a COPR then there's a non-profit based in Ontario who can help you with this. They offer free webinars and one to one coaching and can support you through the whole process.

https://accesemployment.ca/

They will not talk to you until you're approved though because they receive government funding to help newcomers rather than offer out general advice.

PhilippaKatex

Fabulous, thank you so much for that.

DigitalGhost

No worries, anytime. Tbh, I'd say milk those resources for all they're worth. There's no point in trying to make sense of the red tape on your own when the Canadian government are willing to pay someone to walk you through it.

They actually put me on their engineering track last year and I attended a few webinars but it wasn't really suitable for me. Although what I do technically is engineering (DevOps) and my job title in Canada is Engineer, IT is one of the very few professional industries in Canada that doesn't have mandatory licensing and regulation.

Rockyhill

Engineers Canada do not recognise the Washington Accord. My degree course was included on the list of courses that qualified for equivalence but they refused to recognise my degree qualification or my CEng, MIMechE status. Good luck but Engineers Canada purpose is to regulate membership and not promote the betterment of their membership.

Mordko

Like the others have said, the primary purpose of Professional Eng. organisations in the provinces is to restrict the number of out of province professionals who can practice. However you don’t need to be a P.Eng. to work as an engineering manager. You don’t even need it to do design work. You do need it to formally issue engineering designs but another P Eng can do it by reviewing your work.

In Ontario they would normally accept yoir British degrees once you have some local experience and references, pay them and pass an ethics exam.

Atlantic Xpat

I love the genalisations that some folks come up with. Sask. Nothing to see. Now I know little about living and working in Sask, but I do business with an engineering business headquartered in Saskatoon is a leader in a highly specialised, hitech field globally. So to suggest that there is nothing there for an engineer is ridiculous. There may be less than in other provinces, depending upon your specialisation

PhilippaKatex

Hey, thanks for that. We have applied for the Sask. PNP so fingers crossed