APEGS CBA (Competency-Based assessment system) is for a professional registration or licensure applicant to record their progress in satisfying the competency requirements for engineering or geoscience experience and have it evaluated and validated. 

Applicant: An applicant has to complete a competency self-assessment by using examples from work experience to show their level of achievement in each competency.

Validator:  A validator reviews the applicant’s competency self-assessment and offers validation and competency level ratings for the examples that the applicant has given to them. They will also give overall feedback on the applicant’s readiness for professional licensure and registration.

Assessor: An assessor reviews the applicant’s competency self-assessment and the validator’s feedback. After that, the assessor determines for each competency whether the example provided represents enough evidence that it has been fulfilled at the expected level. Besides that, they provide a recommendation on the applicant’s readiness for professional licensure and registration.

CBA benefits:

The following are the benefits of APEGS competency assessment (Competency-Based assessment):

The competencies of an engineer or geoscientist are measurable skills, knowledge, abilities, motivations and traits necessary for professional registration that are demonstrated by means of the actions and behaviours of the applicant. The APEGS CBA system provides the following benefits:

It permits a more quantitative assessment of an applicant using a more precise measuring system than the current APEGS experience review guidelines.

It is a more explicitly described and defined measurement tool to evaluate readiness for registration or licensure.

This system makes the assessment more objective, consistent and transparent and raises the confidence of those who take part in the process including assessors, applicants and employments on the Experience Review Committee.

Description of the CBA system:

The APEGS CBA assessment framework consists of the Assessment Rubric, the Geoscience Competencies and Workplace Examples. These documents are given in the Related Attachments section below.

There are four competency categories that are groupings of a total of 29 skills and competencies:

·        Professional Competencies (7 competencies)

·        Competencies in Scientific Method (5 competencies)

·        Competencies in Geoscience Practice (7 competencies)

·        Complimentary competencies: Communication and management (10 competencies)

The above-listed four categories represent the areas in which all professional geoscientists must be competent to ensure public safety and effective practice. Each Competency Category has a list of Work Experience Competencies necessary in that area and related Workplace Examples (indicators) of the type of work that could be eligible.

Attainment of each category is measured by means of a Level of Competence scale outlining six different levels of competence (0-5). To become successful, you need to fulfill each of the competencies in each category at a minimum level of 1 on the Level of Competence scale, while attaining the necessary minimum Category average score ‘entry to practice’ rating level of 3.

Switch from the current experience reporting system:

You may continue in the current experience reporting system on the condition that you are a current geoscientist-in-training who has given one or more complete experience reports in the outgoing paper-based system before the date of January 1, 2021. However, we encourage and invite you to move towards the APEGS CBA system.

You need to use the new CBA system if any of the below-given situations happen:

You are a current geoscientist-in-training from whom the assessment authority APEGS has not received one or more experience reports before January 1, 2021.

You are a geoscientist-in-training applicant who is an international graduate who has been given the experience review option to waive confirmatory exams and APEGS has not received your completed experience submission (comprising five years of reports) by January 1, 2021.

As a geoscientist-in-training, you applied to APEGS on or after January 1, 2021.