CBA

Can Your Work Experience Waive Confirmatory Technical Exams? (APEGS and EGM)

Published September 27, 2026

Sometimes, yes. APEGS and Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba (EGM) can let applicants who have been assigned confirmatory exams try to waive them with a technical CBA instead: Category 1 (Technical Competence) for engineering, or Categories 2 and 3 for geoscience, with three attempts. EGBC has its own route, Looking to Exempt, which uses your full CBA and sometimes an interview.

These routes are mainly for internationally educated applicants whose degree appears comparable to a Canadian program and who have several years of experience in the same discipline. Here is how each works as of September 2026, and who should consider it.

At a glance (as of September 2026)

Confirmatory exams confirm that a degree which appears comparable to the Canadian program really is.
APEGS: internationally educated member-in-training applicants with more than 4 years of experience may be offered a Category 1 CBA (Categories 2 and 3 for geoscience) in place of the exams, with three attempts.
EGM: a Work Experience option for applicants with at least 4 years of experience closely related to their degree; after three unsuccessful submissions, you write the exams.
EGBC: with at least five years in your degree discipline and a low-risk validation profile, you avoid the exams if two assessors find every competency category at the required level.
APEGS applicants with 10 or more years of experience can complete a full CBA before any full academic assessment.

What confirmatory exams are

APEGS assigns confirmatory exams when your bachelor's degree came from a program that "appears comparable" to the Canadian one; passing them shows your education is at a comparable level. EGM assigns them when its academic assessment finds your program acceptable, with 9 credit units or less of deficiencies and no more than 6 in discipline-specific topics. Both regulators give you several ways to meet the requirement:

three technical exams from the syllabus (for engineering, two from group A and one from group B);
the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, or the Fundamentals of Geology exam for geoscience;
a postgraduate degree in the same discipline (or, at EGM, a closely related one) with enough technical content;
work experience, assessed through the CBA.

At both regulators, failing any combination of these exams three times leads to the application being denied. A deficiency program, assigned when your academics fall below the Canadian standard, is a different requirement.

APEGS: the experience option to waive confirmatory exams

This option is for applicants for member-in-training (EIT or GIT) who earned their bachelor's degree outside Canada, have been assigned confirmatory exams and have more than 4 years of experience according to their résumé. APEGS's Academic Review Committee may grant it and will tell you in writing. Section 7 of APEGS's Competency Assessment Guide (version 23, November 2025) sets the rules:

You report only the technical competencies: Category 1 for engineering, Categories 2 and 3 for geoscience.
Your examples must be in the same discipline as your bachelor's degree. With more than 10 years of experience you may use a different discipline, but all the examples must be in one discipline.
You don't need the two professional references that a standard submission requires.
The Canadian environment competencies don't have to show Canadian equivalency for the waiver, but you must meet that requirement before applying for full professional membership.
You have three attempts. After that the option is revoked and you write the confirmatory exams.
If you pass, you are registered as an EIT (or GIT) and assigned the remaining competencies. Your work experience is fully accepted only once you meet all the standard competency and validator requirements.

If you have 10 or more years of experience

APEGS has a second route, in place since January 1, 2024. If APEGS staff find that your résumé shows 10 or more years of engineering or geoscience experience, a full academic assessment isn't required at that stage; you can complete a full CBA instead. If it meets the experience requirements for licensure within three attempts, no full academic assessment is needed and you become eligible for approval as a member-in-training. If it doesn't, APEGS carries out the full academic assessment.

EGM: the Work Experience option

EGM's Manual of Admissions (effective July 1, 2025) lets EGM assign a Work Experience option to waive confirmatory exams when your résumé shows at least 4 years of professional engineering or geoscience experience closely related to your bachelor's degree. You then go through a technical CBA: Category 1 for engineering, Categories 2 and 3 for geoscience.

If an assessor and the Registration Committee approve the experience, you are approved as an intern and go on to the full CBA required for your P.Eng. or P.Geo. If it isn't approved after three submissions, you must write the confirmatory exams. EGM's Competency Interpretation Statements (March 2026) explain what assessors look for in each competency, so read them before you write.

EGBC: Looking to Exempt

EGBC uses your full CBA rather than one category. Policy 1.C, Looking to Exempt (Engineering), published January 30, 2026, lets eligible P.Eng. applicants use their work experience to try to waive confirmatory exams. It applies if you:

graduated from a program or institution the Credentials Committee hasn't approved;
have at least five years of engineering experience in the same discipline as your degree;
would typically be assigned confirmatory exams;
have no uncleared failures from earlier confirmatory exam attempts; and
have submitted your CBA with all validations completed.

Two or more negative validations make you ineligible, and you are assigned the exams (or offered a review under EGBC's minimum academic requirements policy, where it applies). With a low-risk validation profile, meaning all positive validations, at least two in-discipline P.Eng. validators and at least one recent supervisor who is a P.Eng., your CBA goes to an assessment panel. If two assessors find every competency category at or above the required level, you aren't assigned confirmatory exams and are treated as academically qualified. If only one does, the Credentials Committee decides.

If the assessors don't pass you, you are assigned the exams, and EGBC staff decide whether to offer an optional Looking to Exempt interview. The interview tests whether you have applied engineering principles at a level that warrants exemption, and the panel can recommend waiving some or all of the exams. If you choose an interview over the default outcome (confirmatory exams or the FE exam), you must confirm within 30 days. EGBC's interview policy also covers geoscience graduates with at least seven years of experience.

How the routes compare

Regulator	Route	Experience needed	What is assessed	If it doesn't work
APEGS	Experience option to waive confirmatory exams, granted by the Academic Review Committee	More than 4 years, per your résumé	Category 1 (engineering) or Categories 2 and 3 (geoscience)	Option revoked after three attempts; write the exams
APEGS	Full CBA before academic assessment	10 or more years	All competencies	Full academic assessment after three unsuccessful attempts
EGM	Work Experience option (Manual of Admissions, July 2025)	At least 4 years, closely related to your degree	Category 1 (engineering) or Categories 2 and 3 (geoscience)	Write the exams after three unsuccessful submissions
EGBC	Looking to Exempt (Policy 1.C, January 2026)	At least 5 years in your degree discipline	Full CBA with all validations completed, and possibly an interview	Confirmatory exams or the FE exam
PEO, APEGA and the other regulators	No CBA-based route found in the rules we reviewed	Not applicable	Not applicable	Ask your regulator about your file

PEO and APEGA assess academics separately from the CBA. APEGA's Board of Examiners can defer an application and assign exams or more experience with a deadline, and experience outside your degree field can lead to academic upgrading, more experience or both; NAPEG and Engineers Yukon applicants go through the same process.

Who should consider it

Your recent work has been technical and in the same discipline as your degree (closely related, at EGM).
You can show every technical competency, 1.1 to 1.10, with real projects where you made the engineering decisions.
People who saw that work first-hand can validate it.
You have been out of school for years, so showing your daily work is more realistic than relearning an exam syllabus.

Writing the exams may suit you better if your recent work is mostly management, sales or operations, if it sits outside your degree discipline, or if you can't yet show the technical competencies at level 3. In the full CBA, Technical Competence needs a category average of at least 3.

How to prepare a technical submission

Map your projects to 1.1–1.10. One example per competency; the same project can support several competencies if your actions differ.
Write in Situation–Action–Outcome form, in the first person. APEGS and EGM allow 300 characters for the Situation and the Outcome and 1,200 for the Action.
Name what you applied. Codes, standards, methods and checks. For work abroad, explain the Canadian equivalent, since 1.1, 1.6 and 1.9 are also Canadian environment competencies you must meet later.
Read the interpretation statements. APEGS (June 2025) and EGM (March 2026) publish what assessors look for in each competency.
Choose validators who saw the work first-hand. They rate independently, and their ratings stay confidential.
Treat the first attempt as your best one. Three attempts go quickly, and APEGS allows only one reassessment.

More in Technical Competencies in the CBA and the 8 Canadian environment competencies.

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Frequently asked questions

Does the waiver replace my licensure CBA?

No. It replaces the confirmatory exams. At APEGS you are then registered as an EIT or GIT and assigned the remaining competencies, and at EGM you are approved as an intern and still complete the CBA for your P.Eng. or P.Geo.

Can I choose the work experience option myself?

It is offered, not automatic. APEGS's Academic Review Committee may grant it, EGM may assign it after reviewing your résumé, and EGBC applies its Looking to Exempt policy to applicants who meet its conditions. If you think you qualify, raise it when you receive your academic assessment.

What happens if I don't pass after three attempts?

At APEGS the option is revoked and you write the confirmatory exams, and EGM also requires the exams after three unsuccessful submissions. At both regulators, failing any combination of the exams three times leads to the application being denied.

Do I need Canadian experience to use the waiver?

No. At APEGS the Canadian environment competencies don't have to show Canadian equivalency for the waiver, although you must meet them before applying for full membership. APEGS has not had a time-based Canadian experience requirement for engineering since January 1, 2020.