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Engineering careers in Canada

I Numerous engineers with international credentials go to Canada each year.

They are employed in the fields of civil, electrical, industrial, manufacturing, and mechanical engineering and make up about 12% of all licensed engineers in Canada.

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Important changes in the Canadian

engineering labor market are highlighted in a study Engineers Canada just released on the subject.

The research, titled The Engineering Labour Market in Canada:

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Projections to 2020, gives an overview of engineering specialties, local markets, and global trends.

Engineers Canada, the national organization of the 12 provincial and territorial associations that oversee the practice of engineering in Canada, is experiencing a shortage of engineers with more than 10 years of specialized experience, according to Mark Bourgeois, director of communications and public affairs.

He makes reference to the report’s forecasts that a skills shortfall won’t be resolved by Canadian graduates or seasoned international grads by the time 95,000 professional engineers retire by 2020. Supply and demand imbalances, he claims, “are getting worse.” Although conditions on the engineering labor market differ from region to region, markets need to find a solution to balance training new graduates and foreign engineers who want to work in Canada with the retirement of older professionals.

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According to Jan Hein Bax, president of employment firm Randstad Canada, “the challenges faced by Canada’s engineering industry are undeniably being exacerbated by the shortage of highly skilled professionals.” Pricewaterhouse Coopers claims that as a result of the skills gap, there is now more competition on the international market.

This tendency is anticipated to grow along with an increase in the demand for businesses to find, reward, and retain elite personnel.

More than 75,000 engineers are registered with Professional Engineers of Ontario alone, according to Statistics Canada. The majority are employed as mechanical or civil engineers, with a sizeable portion also working in the fields of electrical and computer engineering.

The need for engineers is expected to grow overall, with the biggest need being for architectural, engineering, and associated services. Mechanical, electrical, and project engineers are the engineering positions that are most frequently advertised.

obstacles for those with international training Internationally qualified engineers are encouraged to get in touch with the province or territory’s engineering licensing organization as soon as they arrive in Canada because licensure is necessary to practice engineering fully there.

With an average assessment time of eight weeks, the Engineering International-Education Assessment Program evaluates the credentials of people with international training. From retraining to job experience to exams, this assessment will establish what steps an immigrant engineer needs follow to get licensed (earn their P.Eng. designation).

Note that if you are under the supervision of a professional engineer (P.Eng. ), you are permitted to work in engineering in Canada prior to receiving your license. According to Bourgeois, there are no particular challenges faced by engineers with international training during the licensing procedure.

To demonstrate their education and Canadian work experience, he says, “they must go through the same process as Canadian students.” But the procedure to be able to work in Canada may seem unfair to engineers who have received foreign training and have years of experience elsewhere.

They can still have trouble finding work even after receiving their license.

According to a study by Engineers Canada, engineers who received their education abroad were significantly less likely to be hired permanently than Canadian engineers who were born and raised here, but they were more likely to work for themselves or on a contract basis.

They also have a higher probability of having managerial or leadership experience. According to Bourgeois, “in terms of immigration, experienced and specialized engineers will have greater work opportunities in Canada, as firms have recruiting needs for specific projects. Markets, however, will be weaker for new graduates.

ways to begin the procedure An immigrant engineer can find a single, comprehensive source of information about how to become licensed in Canada at newcomers.engineerscanada.ca. While licensing as an engineer is done on a provincial/territorial basis (each province/territory has its own governing body overseeing the profession), the new national online resource was launched by Engineers Canada and funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. “Employers in the engineering field say we need good, skilled workers,” claims Marcia. Friesen, director of the University of Manitoba’s program for globally trained engineers.

“It just makes good business sense” to “do everything we can to bring international engineering graduates here and integrate them into our communities.” The website also includes a new Academic Information Tool, which newcomers can use to compare their undergraduate education to Canadian engineering programs to help them understand how their academic credentials are likely to be accepted in this country.

The website was designed with extensive input and support from the 12 provincial and territorial regulators of the engineering profession.

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan’s Kate MacLachlan, head of academic review, claims that “in so many cases, people don’t know what they’re actually getting into when they come here.” We want to make sure that international engineering grads are as prepared as possible, thus we created this website.

Thanks for reading…

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