Pre-graduation Experience

Important issues

PEO can allow a credit of up to 12 months for pre-graduation experience. There are a few caveats with this experience:

• It must be acceptable engineering experience (download the Guide to the Required Experience for Licensing as a Professional Engineer in Ontario);
  
  
• It must have been obtained after you had completed at least 50 per cent of your courses; and
  
  
• It must be seen as a stepping stone to your professional development.
  
  
• Download the Pre-graduation Experience Record to record this experience. Pre-graduation Experience Record Guide
  (contains a Pre-graduation Experience Record Form)

Students, you can use the Engineering Intern Experience checklist to help evaluate if an advertised job will give you relevant experience that can lead to licensing. Print out a copy and use when searching for a summer or work-term position. You can also use it in an interview situation to ask questions. It is not necessary that a pre-grad position provide you with all aspects mentioned on the checklist - a few will be sufficient at this stage in your development. Although it is not necessary to meet all of the requirements with your early work terms, it is useful to become aware of the requirements as early as possible, so you can make the decisions affecting your internship and that are right for you in terms of achieving your goals.

• Engineering Intern Experience Checklist  

PEO cannot assess the acceptability of your pre-graduation experience until we have at least 12 months of post-graduation experience to review as well. In other words, you need to be working one year before PEO can determine if the pre-graduation experience you acquired appears acceptable. A determination of the overall acceptability of an applicant's experience, including the pre-graduation experience, is made upon completion of the four-year experience requirement and the passing of the Professional Practice Examination.