print this page President's Perspective Scott McLean, P.Geo. - APGO President Attracting professionals to Ontario is an issue that APGO is taking on. The Association has recently initiated a “Campus Blitz” that entails approaching all of the Earth Science departments in the province, in part, to elevate the awareness of our profession among students. It is hoped that young individuals will be motivated to enter the only science discipline in Ontario offering a professional designation, through the APGO’s efforts in providing a better perspective of the exciting and rewarding careers that can be attained. Targeting the universities is two pronged. Dr. Bob Hodder, P.Geo., (Council of University Geoscience Departments of Ontario representative on APGO Council) is spear-heading a series of meetings with faculty and department chairs to open up the lines of communication between the universities and the Association and to provide a venue to answer their questions regarding the Association and registration requirements for university graduates. The Registration Committee has also created the “Student and GIT (Geoscientist In Training) Sub-Committee” that is currently developing a plan to support these parts of our membership. The aim is to increase awareness of APGO and the requirements of registration among students while supporting GIT’s with quality networking and mentoring opportunities. In order to meet the forecasted demand for professional geoscientists, the Association must, however, look further afield. Although new young professionals may be gained through increased enrolments at universities, there still will remain a critical shortage of mid-career and senior practitioners as our professional population retires over the next 10 years. One source of experienced professionals that should be able to alleviate this shortage is new immigrants to Canada. It has been estimated that 60 percent of internationally trained, highly skilled professionals are forced to take jobs that are unrelated to their education and training. Trained professionals immigrating to Ontario face many challenges that include: language and cultural barriers as well as not being able to efficiently demonstration of equivalency of credentials for licensing. In an attempt to assist new immigrants, the APGO is currently leading a series of information sessions recently launched by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in partnership with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. The sessions are designed to orient internationally trained geoscientists to Canadian working environments for geoscientists, the job market and licensing requirements for professionals. The themes that APGO will follow for the series of 5 monthly workshops comprise:
These series of workshops are not only designed to provide valuable information to assist participants in acquiring a licence and employment within the profession, but also offer an exceptional networking and mentoring opportunity for new immigrants. With a looming shortage of professionals forecast for Ontario, APGO is taking pre-emptive action. We are addressing the issue at the university level as a method of attracting new young individuals to the profession, but we are also setting sights on attracting more seasoned practitioners. Highly trained immigrants coming to our province will most certainly strengthen and bring a more diverse perspective to our profession. It is only through a competent and effective membership that is well balanced with respect to both age and experience that the APGO can maintain its mission; “To serve the public by regulating, enhancing and providing leadership in the practice of the profession of geoscience in Ontario.” |
For more information on APGO, please contact info@apgo.net |
Looking ahead to 2006, all indications seem to be that the economy will continue to sizzle. One of the strongest areas of the economy is currently the resource sector. Professional geoscientists play an important role in this part of the economy. Currently, however, our profession is facing a significant shortage of practitioners within the next 5 to 10 years. The APGO age demographic is comparable to other associations across Canada and is symptomatic of this forecast. Notably, 77 percent of our membership is older than 40 and only 10 percent is under 30. It is easy to project that our profession may soon be faced with a significant shortage of the professionals required to meet the economic demand.