Hi - i am moving over to Cochrane, Alberta in a few weeks. A family memeber caught the 'canada' bug last week on the house hunting trip and would now like to move over too. She is a psychologist and wonders if the uk qualifications are recognised in canada (alberta to be precise) or would she have to retrain.
Anyone in this job field or knows anything about it. Will start researching about on the internet but up to my eyes in packers etc so thought would try the quick route first!! Thanks

Don't wish to speculate, but might be worth contacting these guys:
http://www.psychologistsassociation.ab.ca/

I phoned the organization to which Surrey Expat provided a link. The woman who answered the phone said that her organization did not handle registration of psychologists in Alberta. She said that the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) handled registration, she gave me their phone number, and she suggested I call them.

I called CAP. The woman who answered the phone said that a foreign psychologist ordinarily would need to establish the equivalency of their degree through International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS).

For the benefit of other BE members reading this post, please note that IQAS is specific to Alberta. Please see Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials to find a link to the body that carries out assessments for the province to which you want to relocate.

She then provided the following instructions:

Next go to CAP's website, and read all the stuff under the Applicants and Registrants tabs.

If, after reading all of that material, you still have questions, go to the Contact Us page, select Registration Coordinator from the pull-down menu, and submit your questions via the Comments / Questions form on the website.

The woman who answered the phone told me that there was a reasonable chance that a British psychologist would qualify for the fast track registration process.

Hope that helps.

thanks very much for the quick replies - very useful, and will pass all the info on.

Hi,

We'll be moving to Ontario, and I'm aware that processes may vary from Province to Province, but for what it's worth...

I'm a Chartered Psychologist in the UK, but without a PhD I qualify mostly for Psychological Associate posts in Canada. I'll have to sit some exams, do some extra work and a PhD to become fully licensed. I believe that in most provinces a PhD is required to become licensed, although Alberta does differ. I'm working in the forensic field, and it may be different depending what area your friend works in.

Maggie