CASE STUDIES

The two eQRm-style programs currently being offered in Canada demonstrate the effectiveness—and flexibility—of the eQRm approach.

IEEQ: University of Manitoba

The Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification (IEEQ) program was developed and piloted in Manitoba from 2003 through 2007 and, as of 2008, is a permanent program in Manitoba centered at the University of Manitoba.

IEEQ is a one-year program offered through the university to IEGs who have been assigned five exams or fewer after having had their credentials assessed by the province’s engineering licensing body, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of Manitoba (APEGM).

International engineering graduates are enrolled and take courses with University of Manitoba engineering students over two terms (approximately 8 months). Courses include Engineering Economics and up to six senior-level technical courses. They also attend one class designed specifically for them, Practising Professional Engineering in Manitoba, which has evolved into the Working in Canada course at the heart of the eQRm model.

The Practising Professional Engineering in Manitoba course is, in part, cultural training to help engineering graduates who are perhaps accustomed to quite different workplace practices in another country, become familiar with Canadian norms.

If the international engineering graduate is not a fluent English speaker, support is provided for improving language proficiency.

Once classroom work is complete, international engineering graduates participate in a four-month paid work term.

The program has proven to be highly successful in achieving its objectives. To date, 100 per cent of participants who have completed the program have been accepted as Engineers in Training or as professional engineers by APEGM, the provincial licensing body.

IEEQB: Ryerson University

A second eQRm-type program accepted its first students in 2007. The Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification Bridging, or IEEQB, Program is offered by the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science at Ryerson University, in partnership with Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO).

As in other provinces, applicants must meet all the requirements set out by the provincial regulator, PEO, in their Licensing Guide and Application for Licence in order to be granted a licence to practice professional engineering in Ontario. The IEEQB provides international engineering graduates with an opportunity to meet the academic requirements for professional engineering licensure in Ontario. The IEEQB program offers two streams leading to that objective.

Stream 1 is intended for licensure applicants who have been offered a Confirmatory Examination Program by PEO. Enrolling in this stream gives international engineering graduates an opportunity to register at Ryerson University as a Special Student in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science. To graduate, participants must:

• successfully complete three to four complementary courses, which include Principles of Engineering Economics, Law and Ethics in Engineering Practice, and Communication in the Engineering Professions; and
• enrol in a four-month paid co-op work term in an industrial corporation, or in a public organization which employs engineers.

Stream 1 participants may also be required to take one or more English as a Second Language / English as an Additional Language course(s) as part of their personalized plan of study if they are found not to be proficient in the English language.

Stream 2 is available to licensure applicants who have been offered a Specific Examination Program that consists of not more than nine specific examinations. It is also available for international engineering graduates with a Confirmatory Examination Program who may wish to pursue an accredited Bachelor of Engineering degree from Ryerson University.

Graduates from either stream meet PEO’s academic requirements.