Lloydminster’s 95 members of the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) will help celebrate the spirit of Alberta Heritage Day.
Heritage Day recognizes the diverse cultural heritage of Albertans and promotes awareness of ASET pioneering the elimination of the Canadian work experience requirement for newcomers.
“Let’s not forget this province is built on newcomers,” said ASET CEO, Barry Cavanaugh in Edmonton.
“One of the things we can be sure of, is at any given point in time in our membership, there’s a significant number of people who were trained in other countries and have come here because they see the opportunities.”
In 2016, ASET developed a competency-based assessment program to offer internationally trained and other engineering technology professionals, a faster route to earning ASET designations and establishing careers.
The assessment program stemmed from the realization of how difficult it is for internationally trained professionals who are qualified in their countries of origin to get recognized in Canada.
“It was a long and expensive process, but it’s been remarkably worthwhile and other provinces have adopted our standards, so we’re very proud of that,” said Cavanaugh.
A recent survey of ASET members, including a couple of international trained professionals in Lloydminster, revealed Alberta is an attractive live/work destination for engineering technology professionals from other countries and parts of Canada.
“There is a high demand for ASET workers in Alberta,” said Cavanaugh.
“I would suspect the unemployment rate for ASET workers is exceedingly low in Alberta. It’s a very engineering intensive province.”
ASET currently represents approximately 17,000 members, including full-time technology students, recent graduates and fully certified members in 21 disciplines and more than 120 occupations across a multitude of industries.
“In terms of the field one of the biggest would be civil engineering technology. There’s electrical and mechanical and that sort of thing,” explained Cavanaugh.
He says of a couple of Lloydminster ASET members are employed as geomatics doing survey work in addition to professionals in the oil and gas industry.
“It’s really cool to run into some of our internationally trained members. They love being here and they love the work,” he said.
Cavanaugh says the competency-based program is a benefit for the employer as well as the workers.
“You know when you’re getting someone with an ASET designation, they know their stuff.”
He says especially for young graduates, employers make certain they get the kind of experience they need the first couple of years on the job.
“We provide them with a log book. so they know exactly what these young graduates need to get for experience before they can become a CET (certified engineering technologist), he added.
Cavanaugh says ASET wants to get word out that if you have an engineering technology background in another jurisdiction you can get that here too.
“That’s almost a guarantee of employment,” he said.
Read More: Heritage Day celebrates history on border
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