ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020 - 8

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

How the pieces
fit together...
Barry Cavanaugh

It's like a mystery novel when you start to figure out how
it'll end - like a jigsaw puzzle, when your focus takes you to
where you can see the picture emerging. That's how it feels
to work at ASET these days. The pieces are slowly coming
together, the complete picture emerging. It looks like we've
matched them all up right, and no pieces are missing. It's
a bit like playing Tetris now; we're getting good at this, and
no matter how fast the pieces come, no matter their shape,
we're fitting them in and continuously building.

All of those things - and many more - have brought us to
where we are now. This includes our negotiations with government to fairly recognize technology professionals in the
existing models of practice, and the development of new
approaches to technologist practice. Each of the pieces fits
together. Stepwise, piece by piece, it's getting built!

All of which is metaphorical, so what am I talking about? I'm
looking at how our vision, our mandate, is being fulfilled, and
how all the effort of the past several years is paying off and
every ASET initiative is paying dividends. Incrementally, for
the profession, for technologists and for the public... the vision of some six decades is taking shape.

Our standards of evaluation for the C.E.T. designation lead
the province's professions (and indeed the country) in objective, competency-based assessments. We hold rigorous
requirements that members continually develop their technical education. Adding to that are our high ethical standards and disciplinary oversight. All of these are supported
by a professional liability insurance program in which every
ASET member participates, thereby protecting the public's
reliance on these professionals.

Each of the areas of focus, each of the cumulative successes, lead to one goal: the full utilization of the knowledge and
skill of applied science and engineering technology professionals in the broader world of engineering work.

These requirements show who these professionals are.
Our education and our standards are, indeed, a good degree higher than those of most professions that have been
granted an independent scope of practice.

It has been a battle hard fought. Getting to this point has
required:

As the picture emerges, so do many questions. Where will
this go next? How will technologists adapt, and how will our
new roles and recognition support us in embracing this vision of the profession? New challenges await, no doubt, and
resistance from some voices.

* struggling to stake out our rights to a meaningful role in
the places ASET members work, and our insistence that
technologists be able to use their knowledge and skills
within that role
* working to establish in law the scope of practice
describing what technologists are not only educated
and trained to do, but also what most are already doing
without recognition; and
* acting to have the Engineering and Geoscience
Professions Act revised to recognize technologists as
independent professionals in their related work with
employers (who often already recognize our members'
abilities within their firms).

8 | WINTER 2020 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA

ASET will continue, with your
support and leadership, to push
the envelope, to demand the role
which engineering technologists
deserve to play - for the good of
Albertans, and of all Canadians.

ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2020