References
As part of your application as a Professional Member or Licensee, you must have at least 3 references who can validate a minimum of 48 months of work experience.
APEGA uses a short and comprehensive reference questionnaire that lets your references confirm your:
A reference must be a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist who had direct responsibility for your technical work. If your direct supervisor was not a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist, please provide your direct supervisor as a reference along with a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist who can confirm the duration and quality of your experience.
Individual periods of your work experience may be referenced by two or more individuals, as long as each reference is presented on a separate page of the Work Experience Record.
Read about the Work Experience Record
In exceptional situations, experience that is not referenced by a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist may be considered, as long as the reference was your direct technical supervisor.
For post-graduate degree experience credit, your reference is your project or thesis supervisor. Please note that the reference questionnaire is not the same as the letter of recommendation. Both are required to submit post-graduate credit.
Read about post-graduate degree experience Read about letters of recommendation
Submitting References
Provide your reference's name and current contact information on your Work Experience Record in the spaces provided. It is your responsibility to ensure that the provided information is correct, so please confirm with your references before submitting your application.
To maintain the integrity of our referencing process, APEGA only accepts professional, academic, or paid email addresses (e.g., TELUS, Shaw, Rogers). Unpaid, generic email addresses, like Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail, are not accepted by our system.
If your reference does not have a non-generic email address, we can send the form, via Canada Post, to his or her personal or business mailing address. The standard reference check can only be conducted via email or physical mail. All reference questionnaires must be sent directly to the reference from APEGA, and must be received by APEGA directly from the reference.
If you wish to change a reference or the contact details, email your Applications Administrator with:
- your APEGA ID
- the reference's name
- the information you wish to change
To protect against applicants who falsify work experience, use fraudulent references, impersonate references, deploy fake websites, or use other unethical practices, APEGA conducts quality assurance audits and may independently confirm the validity of reference responses through phone, email, or other means. Applicants found using unethical practice will be immediately investigated by APEGA.
Reminders and Re-sending Questionnaires
Once we have approved the reference questionnaire, our system will send a notification email to you, and the requirement will show as received in your myAPEGA portal. It is your responsibility to ensure that the reference questionnaires are returned in the required time frame. Therefore, we encourage you to communicate with your references often.
If a reference did not receive the questionnaire, lost the questionnaire, or deleted it, please request to have it resent by contacting your Applications Coordinator with:
- your APEGA ID
- the reference's name
- the reference's contact information
All requests to change a reference or resend a questionnaire must be emailed to your Applications Administrator. We will not accept telephone or in-person requests.