Alberta
Alberta Engineering Technology Professionals paving the way for refugees to find work in their field
News Release from the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta
ASET waives fees for refugees, offers fast route into tech careers locally
Through two initiatives, the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) is making it easier for engineering technology professionals who are refugees from war-torn countries to earn their professional designations and find work in their field without having to return to school.
Effective immediately, ASET is waiving all application fees for refugees seeking to become members and attain their designations (e.g. certified engineering technologist). These fees, which include the application fee, prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) fee, ASET professional practice exam fee, and certification exam fee, can cost up to almost $1,000 per member over time. ASET recognizes that many applicants who are refugees from countries in crisis are also suffering significant economic hardship.
ASET’s fee waiver for refugees reflects its overall commitment to welcoming and supporting newcomers. In 2016, it launched a program designed to offer foreign-trained and other engineering technology professionals a faster route to establishing careers: the competency-based assessment program. The first of its kind in Canada and pioneered by ASET, it enables them to gain purchase in their career fields without having to return to school full-time. ASET eliminated the Canadian work experience requirement, making it one of the few regulatory bodies in Alberta to do this.
After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, single mother Mila Wagner made the difficult decision to leave her home and job in Ukraine and move to Alberta two years later with her three-year-old son, Nikita. When she arrived in Alberta in 2016, she discovered that her multiple engineering technology-related degrees from Ukraine did not translate in the Canadian employment market and no one would hire her. She had to take on menial work until she was able to earn a civil engineering technology diploma at Lethbridge College.
Had she known about ASET’s competency-based assessment program, she could have been fast-tracked into earning an ASET designation – subject to having the required application documentation – and ultimately working in a career-related job in half to a quarter of the time required to complete an additional engineering technology diploma in Canada.
While she praises the excellent civil engineering technology education that she received at Lethbridge College where the instructors are top-notch and go above and beyond to help their students, she wishes she’d known about the ASET program.
Mila and Nikita celebrating a milestone in their new home town
“If I could have been accredited through ASET from my previous schooling in Ukraine, I could have been positioned in a job in my field sooner,” said Wagner, now an ASET member. “I think the competency-based assessment program combined with application fee waiver will be a game changer for refugees from Ukraine and other countries.”
“With our application fee waiver for refugees now in place and our competency-based assessment program already established and proven to help newcomers, ASET is making it easier than ever for refugees with tech backgrounds to get on the career paths for which they were educated in their home countries,” said ASET CEO Barry Cavanaugh. “Alberta and Canada as a whole need more people with the technical knowledge and experience to contribute to our province and nation and we value what these newcomers bring.”
ASET CEO Barry Cavanaugh
How the competency-based assessment program works:
Foreign-trained professionals who have passed an ASET-approved English language proficiency test and are seeking certification and an ASET certified engineering technologist (CET) or certified technician designation (CTech) now undergo a competency assessment. This includes submitting academic credentials, work experience documents – such as CV, competency summary, job descriptions, and references – confirming their work experience locally and abroad. They then complete a professional practice exam that tests them on Alberta-specific legislation and professional ethics, and the ASET certification exam (if applying for the CET designation) that tests them on their technical competency.
In some cases, foreign-trained professionals are not able to access academic documents. For example, if they are refugees from a war zone, their academic institution may have been destroyed. ASET’s PLAR model allows foreign-trained professionals who are unable to produce academic transcripts to complete a work portfolio to demonstrate equivalency to the academic requirements. Skills and knowledge obtained outside of an academic program are evaluated for the purpose of recognizing professional competence, and certification exams test for the educational standard.
Happy times ahead!
About ASET
ASET is the professional self-regulatory organization for engineering technologists and technicians in Alberta. ASET currently represents over 16,000 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.
Alberta
Alberta is investing up to $50 million into new technologies to help reduce oil sands mine water
Technology transforming tailings ponds
Alberta’s oil sands produce some of the most responsible energy in the world and have drastically reduced the amount of fresh water used per barrel. Yet, for decades, operators have been forced to store most of the water they use on site, leading to billions of litres now contained largely in tailings ponds.
Alberta is investing $50 million from the industry-funded TIER system to help develop new and improved technologies that make cleaning up oil sands mine water safer and more effective. Led by Emissions Reduction Alberta, the new Tailings Technology Challenge will help speed up work to safely reclaim the water in oil sands tailing ponds and eventually return the land for use by future generations.
“Alberta’s government is taking action by funding technologies that make treating oil sands water faster, effective and affordable. We look forward to seeing the innovative solutions that come out of this funding challenge, and once again demonstrate Alberta’s global reputation for sustainable energy development and environmental stewardship.”
“Tailings and mine water management remain among the most significant challenges facing Alberta’s energy sector. Through this challenge, we’re demonstrating our commitment to funding solutions that make water treatment and tailings remediation more affordable, scalable and effective.”
As in other mines, the oil sands processing creates leftover water called tailings that need to be properly managed. Recently, Alberta’s Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee brought together industry, academics and Indigenous leaders to identify the best path forward to safely address mine water and reclaim land.
This new funding competition will support both new and improved technologies to help oil sands companies minimize freshwater use, promote responsible ways to manage mine water and reclaim mine sites. Using technology for better on-site treatment will help improve safety, reduce future clean up costs and environmental risks, and speed up the process of safely addressing mine water and restoring sites so they are ready for future use.
“Innovation has always played an instrumental role in the oil sands and continues to be an area of focus. Oil sands companies are collaborating and investing to advance environmental technologies, including many focused on mine water and tailings management. We’re excited to see this initiative, as announced today, seeking to explore technology development in an area that’s important to all Albertans.”
Quick facts
- All mines produce tailings. In the oil sands, tailings describe a mixture of water, sand, clay and residual bitumen that are the byproduct of the oil extraction process.
- From 2013 to 2023, oil sands mine operations reduced the amount of fresh water used per barrel by 28 per cent. Recycled water use increased by 51 per cent over that same period.
- The Tailings Technology Challenge is open to oil sands operators and technology providers until Sept. 24.
- The Tailings Technology Challenge will invest in scale-up, pilot, demonstration and first-of-kind commercial technologies and solutions to reduce and manage fluid tailings and the treatment of oil sands mine water.
- Eligible technologies include both engineered and natural solutions that treat tailings to improve water quality and mine process water.
- Successful applicants can receive up to $15 million per project, with a minimum funding request of $1 million.
- Oil sands operators are responsible for site management and reclamation, while ongoing research continues to inform and refine best practices to support effective policy and regulatory outcomes.
Related information
From LifeSite News
The government said that it has decided to stop ‘waste’ by not making the shots free starting this fall.
Beginning this fall, COVID shots in the province will have to be pre-ordered at the full price, about $110, to receive them. (This will roll out in four ‘phases’. In the first phases COVID shots will still be free for those with pre-existing medical conditions, people on social programs, and seniors.)
The UCP government in a press release late last week noted due to new “federal COVID-19 vaccine procurement” rules, which place provinces and territories as being responsible for purchasing the jabs for residents, it has decided to stop “waste” by not making the jab free anymore.
“Now that Alberta’s government is responsible for procuring vaccines, it’s important to better determine how many vaccines are needed to support efforts to minimize waste and control costs,” the government stated.
“This new approach will ensure Alberta’s government is able to better determine its overall COVID-19 vaccine needs in the coming years, preventing significant waste.”
The New Democratic Party (NDP) took issue with the move to stop giving out the COVID shots for free, claiming it was “cruel” and would place a “financial burden” on people wanting the shots.
NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman claimed the move by the UCP is health “privatization” and the government should promote the abortion-tainted shots instead.
The UCP said that in 2023-2024, about 54 percent of the COVID shots were wasted, with Health Minister Adriana LaGrange saying, “In previous years, we’ve seen significant vaccine wastage.”
“By shifting to a targeted approach and introducing pre-ordering, we aim to better align supply with demand – ensuring we remain fiscally responsible while continuing to protect those at highest risk,” she said.
The UCP government said that the COVID shots for the fall will be rolled out in four phases, with those deemed “high risk” getting it for free until then. However, residents who want the shots this fall “will be required to pay the full cost of the vaccine, the government says.”
The jabs will only be available through public health clinics, with pharmacies no longer giving them out.
The UCP also noted that is change in policy comes as a result of the Federal Drug Administration in the United States recommending the jabs be stopped for young children and pregnant women.
The opposite happened in Canada, with the nation’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) continuing to say that pregnant women should still regularly get COVID shots as part of their regular vaccine schedule.
The change in COVID jab policy is no surprise given Smith’s opposition to mandatory shots.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, early this year, Smith’s UCP government said it would consider halting COVID vaccines for healthy children.
Smith’s reasoning was in response to the Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force’s “COVID Pandemic Response” 269-page final report. The report was commissioned by Smith last year, giving the task force a sweeping mandate to investigate her predecessor’s COVID-era mandates and policies.
The task force’s final report recommended halting “the use of COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of their potential risks” as well as outright ending their use “for healthy children and teenagers as other jurisdictions have done,” mentioning countries like “Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the U.K.”
The mRNA shots have also been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children and all have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies.
Many Canadian doctors who spoke out against COVID mandates and the experimental mRNA injections were censured by their medical boards.
LifeSiteNews has published an extensive amount of research on the dangers of the experimental COVID mRNA jabs that include heart damage and blood clots.
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