34 Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) Course
Submit your best competencies to your association to become licensed sooner and accelerate your career.
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Trusted by over 12,000 engineers.
For 11 years, we've been Canada's #1 Competency Based Assessment (CBA) advisor.
3 Common CBA Struggles
- Getting Started
- Writing that first competency can be the hardest part.
- How close should I get to the maximum character/word limit?
- Which project examples should I include?
- Finding the time
- Making time to brainstorm project examples and remember work details can be exhausting. You might also be wondering - What does a quality record look like?
- How do I show my application of engineering theory?
- How can I explain my engineering methodology?
- Finishing it
- Is it ready for my association?
- Are there any issues with my competencies?
- Is my writing clear and concise, or blurry and scattered?
Why take our 34 CBA course?
To pick your best work examples, go through the lessons to learn what the 34 competencies and their indicators really mean. Then, review 7 fully accepted CBAs from our past clients. Each CBA has already met the minimum score from their association so you can learn from these competencies (in terms of complexity, length and depth). Finally, if you want, order a review from a P.Eng. in a similar field as you. Get quick email support from our team whenever you have questions. Your CBA submission success is guaranteed.
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The 34 CBA Course has been designed for those applying with PEO, EGBC (engineers only), APEGNB, APEGS, EGM, Engineers PEI, and PEGNL.
We've customized the material to address the specific requirements of these associations and the 34 competency format.
Our 34 CBA Course is designed to take you by the hand to start, improve, finish and submit your best competencies.
Here's what you'll receive:
Who is this course for?
Canadian and foreign-educated aspiring engineers applying for a professional licence (P.Eng.) using the 34 competency format (1.1. to 7.3).
Your draft needs a review... before it's reviewed (by your association)
Q. Who will review my draft CBA? After going through the course, you can order a 2- or 3-hour review. When you place your order, you can select a consultant with the closest engineering background. Our consultants cover civil (structural, geo, rail/transit), mechanical (HVAC, fire protection, aerospace, mechatronics), electrical (power), biomedical, chemical (process, mining, metallurgy and petroleum, extractive metallurgy), and computer (software).
Q. What will the reviewer catch? They will catch errors, issues, and unclear things. It's better if we point out these issues and let you correct them before submitting.
Q. What will the reviewer focus on? For a 2-hour review, your reviewer will review the first 10 competencies 1.1 to 1.10. For a 3-hour review, they will cover 15 competencies—1.1 to 3.2.
Q. How long does it take? A 2-hour review will cover 10 competencies and take 5 business days to complete. A 3-hour review covers 15 competencies and takes 7 business days.
Slide the vertical bar below to see what happens to a draft CBA when we review it:
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Your Roadmap to CBA Success
Take the self-guided course
Work from top to bottom in the 9-module course. Learn about each competency and indicator from 1.1 through 7.3. Review submission best practices and common mistakes. Compare your draft with our 7 fully accepted samples from past clients. Feel confident as you start, fix or finish your 34 competencies.
Order a draft review (optional)
Select one of our P.Eng. consultants in a similar engineering discipline and stream as you. Send in your 10 or 15 drafted competencies to get actionable feedback in about a week.
Integrate feedback
Review the comments left directly in your MS Word file. Implement the ones you agree with to help make your draft sound clearer, more professional and concise.
Submit
Send it off to your association knowing that your CBA is the best it can be.
Don't delay your application any longer.
Let our course show you the way to submit your best CBA.
$199 CAD +tax
- Online Course
- Course features:
- 7 Step-By-Step Modules show you how to develop, compile and submit your best CBA
- Submission Checklist
- 7 fully accepted CBA samples3 civil (transportation, geotech, structural); 2 mechanical (manufacturing, fire protection); 1 electrical (power); and 1 petroleum (only 22 competencies)
- eLearning on submission best practices & common mistakes
- Brainstorming Sheet to help you match your projects to the 34 competencies
- Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options availableCan't pay in full today? No problem! Our payment partners Afterpay and Klarna allow you to pay in 4 interest-free instalments.
- 5 months of course access
- Access right away (even at 2 a.m. in the morning)
- CBA accepted or a full refund + an additional $100. -
A review service can be purchased separately from within the course (details below)
Order a review after completing the course
(it can be ordered in step 8.1 of the course)
Our consultants can review applicants in the following areas:
- civil (structural, infrastructure, geotechnical, rail/transit)
- mechanical (HVAC, fire protection, aerospace, mechatronics)
- electrical (power).
- biomedical
- chemical (process, mining, metallurgy, petroleum / oil & gas, extractive metallurgy)
- computer - software
We offer two types of reviews:
2-hour review
- The reviewer will add comments to the first 10 competencies (1.1 to 1.10).
- Please allow 5 business days.
- Price: C$250 + tax
3-hour review
- The reviewer will add comments to the first 15 competencies (1.1 to 3.2).
- Please allow 7 business days.
- Price: C$350 + tax
FAQs
Unfortunately, it’s impossible for us (or anyone else) to take your resume and turn it into a CBA.
A resume is a 1 or 2-page document that summarizes your duties and accomplishments at a very high-level.
A Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) goes deep into the details of specific situations at work. For instance, competency 1.1 Regulation, Codes, and Standards ask you to demonstrate your knowledge of regulations, codes, standards, and safety. This is not something that you would have in your resume and is one example of why you have to draft the CBA on your own with the help of our course.
Luckily, our step-by-step CBA course will show you how to write your situations on your own before they are sent for review. Reviewing the sample CBA in the course will help you to get lots of ideas about the length and detail you should aim for.
Unfortunately, we require everyone to take the course to qualify for our review service. The course helps to ensure your draft meets a certain level of quality. It also allows our consultants to focus the feedback more on your engineering content and less on submission compliance.
Great question. We can only add value to your draft if we have a consultant available in that discipline and stream. The following are disciplines that we currently support:
- civil (structural, infrastructure, geotechnical)
- mechanical (HVAC, fire protection, aerospace, mechatronics)
- electrical (power).
- biomedical
- chemical (process, mining, metallurgy and petroleum, extractive metallurgy)
- computer - software
If your discipline is not listed above, you will still benefit from going through the course to prepare your competency report.
Unfortunately, no.
We can't guarantee that after you use our course/review you won't have to fulfil other requirements from your association. There are a lot of factors out of our control (e.g. the experience you have gained, if you were educated in Canada or abroad, if you implement our recommendations or not).
Our goal is to give you the best tools, examples, support and recommendations to make your CBA submission the strongest it can be and ensure that it is clear and concise. By doing this, you'll be able to reduce your chances of having to fulfill other requirements.
The start and end dates for each competency refers to the time period for just that project. It should be a minimum of 1 month in duration.
Yes.
Validation is critical to your CBA submission. Pick your validators wisely. It should be someone who knows your experience well and has a reputation for doing things on time. However, if your validators are not validating your experience for any reason (e.g. retired, sick), you can contact your association to have them switched.
Sure! If your association does not initially accept your CBA, we'll put our entire team of P.Eng. consultants on the mission of helping you to resubmit it (at no additional cost). We will review your submission and suggest specific ways you can rewrite each rejected competency to make it stronger and more in line with the expectations. This might mean making your existing competencies stronger or helping you to brainstorm better examples from your work history.
If your association still doesn't accept your resubmitted competencies, we'll issue you a full refund plus an additional $100.
Our guarantee page allows you to claim your refund and an additional $100.
Course Development and Support Team
Gavin Simone, P.Eng. (AB), LEED AP
Founder and your Virtual Mentor
About a decade ago, Gavin volunteered with Engineers Canada to help them with an experience reporting pilot program. This program eventually became the Competency Based Assessment (CBA) licensing step. Around that time, Gavin founded Practice PPE Exams—dedicated to helping aspiring engineers quickly navigate the licensing hurdles.
He has worked with thousands of aspiring engineers to navigate the CBA across Canada. The team has carefully constructed the course lessons and information to help applicants submit their best 34 work examples to their association.
Gavin has assembled a team of accomplished P.Eng. consultants ready to support you with a draft review service. They are all past clients who have been through the licensing process themselves and know the types of challenges that a new applicant might experience.
Joydeep Banerjee, P.Eng. (ONT), PhD
Content Developer
Joydeep is a mechanical engineer who is an expert on model-based technologies. With a PhD from the University of Waterloo, he brings years of teaching experience and industry experience in model-based engineering and digital thread applications. Joydeep successfully submitted his experience to PEO a few years ago and is very familiar with the CBA process and requirements.
Afonso Pacheco
Webmaster
Being the webmaster for Practice PPE Exams for 7 years, Afonso brings a wealth of experience delivering e-learning content. He has been instrumental in making the course lessons load quickly and implementing modern navigation.
Here's What You'll Learn
With the CBA Rapid Submission Course, you'll learn about all 34 competencies and their indicators (steps 1 to 7). This will help you build a foundation and enable you to pick strong examples from your work history.
In step 8, you'll be able to see 7 fully accepted CBA samples from our past clients. This will give you a benchmark about what your association is likely looking for from you. Step 8 also contains common mistakes and best practices—which are very important to note.
Step 9 is where you can order a draft review service if desired. It's always better to get feedback from someone in your engineering area who's been through the process.
Below is some additional information about the course lessons and how it will improve your CBA.
In Step 0, we'll:
- Show you around the course.
- Make sure you have started your application and reviewed the online CBA template from your association.
- Download our course checklist and brainstorming sheet.
In Step 1, you’ll learn:
- All about technical competencies (1.1 to 1.10). Technical competencies are important and must showcase complex engineering problems you have resolved.
- Ideally, the problems and solutions should be related to what you studied in university.
- We'll show examples of others that used engineering theories/principles to resolve a problem. Going deep into the details (e.g. assumptions you made, alternatives you considered) is encouraged as it can help you score higher on the 0-5 rating system.
- With insights and examples, we'll help you find great examples from regulations/codes/standards (1.1) to engineering documentation (1.10).
In Step 2, discover:
- All about the three communication competencies (2.1 to 2.3). Your association wants to know if you can communicate your engineering thoughts, work products and technical feedback to others.
- We'll help you understand some finer points, like explaining how you tailor your communication differently to team members (e.g. technical vs. non-technical).
- These competencies are more than just listing that you know how to use email, a phone, and MS Office. We'll cover the specifics of communication techniques and provide examples.
- Remember to have your entire CBA well-written and free from spelling and grammatical errors. Your entire CBA will be reviewed and will impact your score for competency 2.2.
In Step 3, we'll dive into:
- The five project and financial management competencies (3.1 to 3.5). All projects have a target budget and completion date. We'll help you explain how you helped achieve both of those.
- Avoid using cliche statements like "My project was completed on time and on budget." Instead, we'll help you remember specific things you did that can showcase project management or financial techniques you used.
In Step 4, we'll teach you:
- The two team effectiveness competencies (4.1 to 4.2). Projects involve people, but successful projects involve people working well together. Your association wants to hear about how you work with others (professionals, non-professionals) and if you have the tools to resolve issues.
- Here, we'll give you examples of what conflicts look like, and we'll help you remember the strategies you used to resolve the problem.
- If you struggle to find a conflict resolution example, your association will let you take a quick conflict resolution course to meet this competency. We provide course recommendations in this step.
In Step 5, you'll master:
- The six professional accountability competencies (5.1 to 5.6). In this section, your association seeks proof that they can trust you once you become a member. Are you aware of the code of ethics? Do you know when and how to apply a seal? Are you able to recognize and avoid a conflict of interest? You'll need to address each one with a strong example.
- In this section especially, we'll show you how to support your examples with association publications (e.g. referencing specific code of ethics tenets you met; citing sections of your association's authentication/seal guide to help explain the process you followed).
In Step 6, we’ll help you understand:
- The five social, economic, environmental and sustainability competencies (6.1 to 6.5). In this section, your association wonders if you are aware of the public impact of your work.
- We'll help you find examples from your work history that demonstrate how you considered the impact of climate change and sustainability.
- You'll also see examples of when the engineer's role overlaps with other professionals and how to accommodate others.
In Step 7, you’ll uncover:
- The three personal continuing professional development (CPD) competencies (7.1 to 7.3). Your association wants to know if you can recognize your weaknesses and have the energy to address them with CPD.
- We'll help you remember the CPD you completed and show you how to find your knowledge gaps and fill them with a professional development plan for the coming two years.
In Step 8, you’ll:
- Review 7 fully accepted CBAs from our past clients. The samples are 3 civil (transportation, geotech, structural); 2 mechanical (manufacturing, fire protection); 1 electrical (power); and 1 petroleum (only 22 competencies). Don't worry if you don't see your engineering discipline/stream represented here. You'll still get massive benefits from reviewing these CBAs and seeing their examples, depth of problems and steps they took to meet the competency minimum scores.
- Read about common mistakes from past clients. Avoid traps, shortcuts and forgetting to include important CBA details. We'll summarize a few of the most common errors we see.
- Follow best practices outlined by your association. We'll touch on topics like selecting the best validator, sticking to technical examples, and following English rules to ensure your CBA is strong.
And in Step 9, you're ready to:
- Review our list of consultants and order a 2 or 3-hour review. This optional step costs extra, but it allows you to strengthen your draft before submission. Pick a consultant with a similar engineering background and wait about a week for their comments. Integrate their feedback into your draft.
- It is now time to send your final CBA off to your association. Celebrate this milestone with your friends and family while waiting for your association to review your well-written competencies.
We've made the choice easy.
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p.s. Having your CBA accepted is necessary to become licensed. Being licensed will improve job security—as you join your esteemed colleagues/friends who have earned the designation. Start by submitting your best CBA. Start for free by clicking below.
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