Case Study

Culture shift:

Helping integrate international graduates into Canada’s engineering profession

Client Name:
 Engineers Canada
Project:
 From Consideration to Integration (FC2I).
Services:
 Implementation, Project Management, Strategic Counsel.
Assignment
Engineers Canada (Engineers Canada is the business name of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers) is the national organization of the provincial and territorial associations responsible for regulating the practice of engineering in Canada. In 2002, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada awarded Engineers Canada the funding to realize a massive, three-phased initiative called From Consideration to Integration (FC2I). Its aim: to help better integrate internationally educated engineers into the Canadian workforce. For Engineers Canada, the challenge was to do so without compromising its professional standards—or public safety—and strike consensus among a truly huge body of stakeholders. It engaged Blueprint to develop and implement a communications plan to support the initiative.
“Blueprint’s work on FC2I was exceptional, helping our incredibly diverse stakeholders see eye to eye and progress from idea to agreement to action on a key issue for our profession. They assisted the engineering profession in Canada achieve success on a challenging issue for many professions in this country, the integration of the internationally educated.” Deborah Wolfe, P.Eng. Managing Director, National Committee on Accreditation Federation of Law Societies of Canada, Formerly, Director, Education, Outreach and Research, Engineers Canada

The Blueprint approach

Blueprint built a detailed communications plan with input from FC2I’s 35-member steering committee—representatives of the various groups affected by the initiative. Shaping the plan was complicated by the fact that the licensing of engineers is a provincial/territorial responsibility in Canada. Understanding the sensitivity of this—and with knowledge of the engineering field—Blueprint was able to build into its plan tools that would help licensing bodies improve their capacity to integrate international engineering graduates. Those tools were designed specifically to suit unique regional and cultural needs.

Highlights and outcomes

Through its considered counsel, careful planning and impeccable project management, Blueprint helped Engineers Canada actively engage the broad base of FC2I’s stakeholders, produce a set of fully approved recommendations and develop successful funding applications. Government decision makers and politicians recognized the strides made by the engineering profession on the issues of immigration and employment. Thanks to Blueprint’s media relations efforts around FC2I, the initiative received positive national and local coverage.

Ultimately, Blueprint helped Canada’s engineers initiate a cultural shift within their profession: today, integrating international engineering graduates into the workforce is no longer a special project but rather a fully integrated component of the work done every day by licensing bodies across the country. Blueprint continues to work with Engineers Canada providing strategic counsel and media relations support.