Professional Accreditation

Professional orders exist in every Canadian province and their requirements are fairly similar. Find out what is involved in professional practice before you complete your degree, especially if you plan to apply to the exploration or environmental industry for summer employment.

 

Our B.Sc. Major Geology and Honours Geology programs meet the academic requirements of most provincial accreditation bodies. The first step after a B.Sc. degree is granted, if you are seeking employment in geosciences, is to apply as a geologist-in-training (GIT) to the professional order of your province of residence or where you are seeking employment. In many companies and government entry-level positions, this is a condition of hiring.

In most Canadian provinces, after fulfiling the undergraduate degree requirements, full accreditation as P. Geo. requires 4 years of work experience as a geologist-in-training supervised by a professional geologist (P. Geo.). During that period, a candidate must also get a passing grade on a Professional Practice Examination (its scope and format are described at NPPE and at PPE).

In Quebec, 3 years of experience as géologue stagiaire are required by the Ordre de Geologues du Quebec (OGQ) before applying for the P.Geo. title. The OGQ runs its own professional exam (read about it at Examen Professionnel, in French; a preference for writing the professional exam in English can be indicated at the time of application).

Our other programs (Honours Planetary Sciences, Major or Honours Earth System Science, Major Physics and Geophysics, B. Sc. Environment) are not structured to meet all the academic requirements for professional accreditation. However, they can come very close by carefully choosing your complementary and elective courses. Some requirements can be fulfilled after your B.Sc. by relevant work experience or graduate research experience supervised by a P.Geo.

Additional information about professional organisations is available from Geoscientists Canada

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