Professional Development and Volunteer Service Requirements for MITs

Overview

One of the requirements for the MIT program is ongoing professional development (PD) and volunteer service (VS). The APEGM council has established that one hour of professional development and one hour of volunteer service be obtained per month on the APEGM pre-registration program. Therefore, for most MITs, 48 hours of professional development and 48 hours of volunteer service is sufficient to satisfy the pre-registration program requirements. APEGM encourages you to continue to do professional development and volunteer service even after reaching this quota.

APEGM accepts a wide range of professional development and volunteer service choices for credit. It is not necessary for you to obtain these credits on a time schedule (i.e. 4 hours per year or 8 hours per year), but it is necessary for you to obtain the required amount PRIOR to being registered. We encourage you to look for these opportunities early in your pre-registration program to avoid scrambling in your last months.

To submit PD and VS records to APEGM, please login to your APEGM Online account and fill out the forms.

Professional Development

APEGM defines Professional Development as something you go to - for example, you go to a course or you go to a seminar.

We accept a wide range of professional development activities - from technical activities to 'soft skill' activities such as language training, toastmasters, writing workshops. We only ask that these activities be related to your development as an professional engineer or geoscientist. So, while most activities would be acceptable - we wouldn't accept bowling, or singing lessons, or karate class (unless you could make the case that attending such classes was going to be useful in your professional career). If you have questions, please contact us and make your pitch if you believe that your activity should be claimable.

Some examples of activities that can be claimed for professional development include:

Management

Recruitment and Selection Processes
Human Resource Planning and Management
Strategic Planning
Project Control
Developing a Business Plan
Sales and Marketing
Continuous Service Improvement
Decision Making and Problem Solving
Customer Service
Preparing Objectives and Action Plans
Negotiation and Bargaining Skills
Process Safety Management

Supervision

Conflict Management
Stress Management
Motivating Employees
Working with Minorities
Harassment Issues
Total Quality Management (TQM), self-directed work teams
Defusing Hostilities
Motivation and Productivity
Career Management
Working Within A Collective Agreement
Performance Evaluations
Safety in the Workplace

Communications

Report Writing
Public Speaking
Critical Thinking & Critical Thinking Skills
Running Effective Meetings
Presentation Skills
Computer Skills/Applications
Toastmasters participation
Languages

Business

Business Finance
Economics for Practising Engineers or Geoscientists
Statistics

Law

Negotiating a Contract
Writing Specifications

Self-Development

Junior Achievement Involvement

Other

Environmental Factors affecting the engineering/geoscience process
APEGM Professional Development (breakfast or luncheon) meetings (normally a max. 1 hour/meeting)
APEGM seminars
APEGM Annual General or Chapter Meetings (number of presentation hours only - does not include time spent at lunch)
Supplier Seminars
Plant Tours
Technical Training

Volunteer Service

Unlike Professional Development which is something that you go to, APEGM defines volunteer service as something you do - for example you run in a Marathon for charity, or you serve on a technical board for Ashrae. Like professional development, APEGM accepts a wide range of volunteer service activities - from professional service activities such as serving on technical committees or APEGM committees, to community service activities such as serving on Rotary or Kiwanis or volunteering in senior centres. The range is quite broad; if you have questions, please contact us. All we ask is that:

the activity be unpaid,
that the work be done for a technical or a charitable organization, and
that it not be volunteer work done for a relative (children included)

Some examples of activities that can be claimed for volunteer service include:

Participating in organizing or making a presentation at an APEGM general or chapter meeting or seminar
Serving on an APEGM committee
Assisting in organizing a technical society function (seminar, meeting, etc.)
Serving on a technical society committee
Serving on a Board or Committee in an engineering or geoscientific capacity
Providing job shadowing for a student
Mentoring a student on a volunteer basis, outside the workplace
Participating as a judge at a science fair
Preparing and deliver a presentation on engineering or geoscience as a career to an elementary, junior or senior high school class, or to a youth organization (e.g. 4H, guides or scouts, junior achievement, etc.)
Participating in career days or a careers symposium by staffing a booth and/or preparing and setting up a display on engineering or geoscience
Participating as a Production Advisor to a Junior Achievement Company
Preparing a technical paper for a conference and/or publication
Presenting a technical paper
Refereeing a technical paper
Sponsoring an engineering or geoscience student at the annual student networking dinner (2 hours max./event)
Holding a board position and actively participating in the operation of a community club, cultural group, or religious organization
Coaching or managing a team
Organizing a cultural event
Participating in a community volunteer organization such as the Lion's Club or the Big Brothers/Sisters Association
Assisting in the organization and production (sound, lights, stage etc) of a community event such as a play or concert
Organizing and co-ordinating a charity event
Giving Blood - 1 hour per donation

Also, review the more general Professional Development and Volunteer Service pages of this website.

Responsible Staff

Questions regarding acceptability of professional development and volunteer service can be addressed to the Director of Admissions who will forward the request to the ERC as necessary.