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Home > News&Events > News > OAA and Internationally-trained Professionals
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| | OAA and Internationally-trained Professionals
As promised during the election campaign, the provincial government has directed all self-regulating professions to address the challenges faced by internationally-trained professionals (ITP’s) immigrating to Ontario. Statistics indicate an average of 150 “architects” are arriving each year. OAA President Lesley Watson and Executive Director Brian Watkinson met, at her request, with Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities the Hon. Mary Anne Chambers on April 21, 2004. The purpose, as established by the Minister, was for the OAA to outline both the progress our profession has made on this government priority and our plans for resolving the issue within the one year time frame allotted by the government. (posted: May 5, 2004)
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As reported earlier in e-bulletin, OAA Council had already begun work in 2003, and the OAA was able to assure the Minister of our profession’s commitment to addressing the issues, while protecting the public interest and maintaining the standards of the profession.
Watson and Watkinson first provided detailed background on Ontario’s architects, including demographics, financial indicators, and a review of some of the findings of the McGill report, Succeeding by Design, including the conclusion that demand will seriously outstrip supply of architects in the near future given current trends. This conclusion in the McGill report was one of a number of factors that alerted Council to the ITP issue in 2003, along with increasing contacts from ITP’s facing challenges obtaining certification of their education, accumulating work experience and pursuing licensure.
Watson reviewed a series of initiatives already underway or under consideration, including:
- Council established a Task Group to focus on ITP’s and has outlined a preliminary strategy for ‘defining our problem’ and posing solutions
- Participation on Access Ontario Steering Committee, and Regulators for Access: http://www.regulators4access.ca/
- Research
- Learning from others’ experience in supporting ITP’s
- Statistics
- A very important part of ‘defining our problem’
- Analysis of statistics already in OAA data
- Obtaining and analysis of necessary, additional statistics
- Interface with:
- Our profession nationally and in other provinces/territories
- Our profession internationally
- Academe
- Existing and emerging ‘settlement organizations’ (which attempt to assist new immigrants to Ontario, including ITP’s)
- Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists, our partners in the Ontario Association for Applied Architectural Sciences, our technologist program
- Communication
- Creation of ‘Fact Sheets’ with the provincial government
- Practice Bulletins to assist ITP’s, interns and others in job search
- Practice Bulletins to assist firms with hiring practices
President Watson went on to list some of the key issues we have already tentatively identified from the perspective of individual ITP’s, practices and the OAA as a self-regulating profession.
Minister Chambers was favourably impressed that changes to the Intern Architect Program (IAP) in 1997 had allowed the OAA to accept for full credit the experience of architects from other jurisdictions toward licence in Ontario, subject to the requirement for 940 hours of Ontario experience as specified in the IAP. Some professions evidently require that a substantial amount of the experience requirement be repeated in Canada or in Ontario.
Minister Chambers thanked the President and the Executive Director for meeting with her, and specifically thanked President Watson for a strong and thorough presentation which demonstrated the architectural profession’s commitment to resolving this issue.
Minister Chambers indicated that she has ‘point responsibility’ for this priority, and will create a ‘report card’ to monitor progress of each profession based on quarterly reports she receives.
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