Candidates for the engineering profession: A new professional admission program comes into force on April 1 Français
MONTREAL, March 28, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - In pursuit of its efforts to strengthen its public protection mechanisms, the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec is announcing the coming into force of a new professional engineering admission program that will replace its current junior engineer program at the end of a three-year transitional period.
"The objective of the new program is to better protect the public by adopting best practices in evaluating the technical and professional competencies of candidates. To be sure that the competencies of tomorrow's engineers meet society's expectations, candidates will be better supported and supervised," said OIQ President Kathy Baig, Eng., FEC, MBA.
Starting on April 1, 2019, all new permit applicants – whether they have graduated from an institution in Quebec or were trained abroad – will have to complete this new program to acquire the engineer title and perform the acts reserved for engineers under the Engineers Act.
Candidates for the engineering profession will be subject to the Code of Ethics of Engineers and have five years to successfully complete the program, which entails:
- acquiring six competencies in at least 24 months of practical engineering experience that is supervised and evaluated by an engineer who has at least three years of recent experience;
- passing the professional examination at the end of 30 hours of online theoretical training.
To present the program to future engineering graduates, the OIQ conducted a tour of all schools and faculties of engineering in Québec in March.
For internationally trained professionals (ITPs) from countries with which the OIQ has not signed an agreement, the new program announced today comes in addition to the changes that were introduced last year to make it easier for this group of professionals to enter the profession. In 2018-2019, more than 20% of the admission applications received by the OIQ came from ITPs, of which 74% held diplomas not recognized under an agreement. At this time, internationally trained professionals account for 12% of the OIQ's 66,000 members.
Transitional period
The 12,175 OIQ members who currently have junior engineer or engineer-in-training status will be able to choose whether they want to register for the new program or complete their current junior engineer program in the next three years. However, the permits of junior engineers and engineers-in-training will no longer exist starting on April 1, 2022.
Replenishing the profession
In the last five years, the OIQ has admitted 3,000 new professionals on average per year. During the same period, only 2,045 new permits were issued to full-fledged engineers on average per year.
This new professional admission program is being implemented under the Regulation respecting the terms and conditions for the issuance of permits by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, which was adopted by the OIQ's Board of Directors on October 8, 2018 and approved by the Office des professions du Québec on February 22, 2019.
About the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
Founded in 1920, the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec has a membership of some 66,000 engineering professionals in all fields, except forest engineering. The OIQ's aim is to be a unifying organization and a reference for professionalism and excellence in engineering. Its mission is to protect the public by acting to ensure that engineers serve society with professionalism, compliance and integrity in the public interest. For more information, go to www.oiq.qc.ca.
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SOURCE Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec
Patrick Leblanc, Senior Public Affairs Advisor, Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, Tel.: 514 441-3697 (cell.)
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