As interns we should be meeting with our mentors frequently. What keeps some interns from meeting their mentors as frequently as they should is often a simple case of not getting the experience log book hours ready for review and signature. Since the mentor’s signature is required on logged experience, the frequency of meeting a mentor to discuss work, experience, the profession etc. has become contingent on getting a signature in the logbook - no logbook, no meeting. Logging hours is a task that often gets put on the backburner for months, sometimes years! This is a bad habit to get into particularly if it is causing you to decrease the frequency of meetings with your mentor.
One solution is to create motivation to complete the logbook. There are many ways to do this of course but one we’d like to suggest is to make a meeting schedule with your mentor in advance of completing your logbook. At your next meeting, for example, set a date for your following meeting 4 or 6 months. That will give you a deadline to complete your logbook, make sure you get your experience in on time, and make the most out of you mentor relationship.
Aside from all this – and a much preferred additional option – is to make a regularly scheduled appointment to meet with your mentor to talk shop. You don’t have to, and should not limit the relationship to one of log book signing but rather should seek to gain as much knowledge out of your mentor as you can.
Another solution is to make the process of logging hours easier. Many of us have created spreadsheets to help automate the task. These spreadsheets often start out saving time but end up becoming cumbersome and complex especially as the number of projects increases. At the intern committee we are working on creating a spreadsheet to help handle this task. If you have a spreadsheet that you think works well and would like to share it with us, we’d love to see it. Our email address is interncommittee@yahoo.com. Thank you!
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Perhaps this is old news but every Intern in B.C. should know the policy of the AIBC in regards to the alternate registration process, the ExAC.
ReplyDeleteMark,
I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
The bottom line is that the AIBC as the regulator of the profession in the public interest, does not –at this time- have sufficient confidence in ExAC to adopt it. You should be aware that while the other provinces have “signed on” this is an Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario project. The other provinces have signed on because they were offered inclusion at little or no cost now and at significant cost later. The same option was not open to BC given our size and numbers. To sign on to ExAC would have been a huge expense, for a product we are not sufficiently confident in at this time. This is not to denigrate the very good work done to get the first instance of ExAC off the ground. We would rather wait and see whether the exam will be credible and be able to be sustained over the longer term.
The idea of a made in Canada exam is not a new one. There have been attempts in the past. Our history with them is that while the first or even the first and second iterations are good, subsequent ones deteriorate in quality. That is because these exams are expensive and time consuming to maintain and administer. We have considerable time, resources, and confidence in the NCARB exams. We hope that the ExAC will be as sustainable. If so, we will reconsider.
In any event I will take your well reasoned and valid arguments to the R&L Board so that they keep this issue top-of-mind.
Jerome Marburg, LL.B. MBA
AIBC - Director of Registration and Licensing
General Counsel
I would recommend the IDP workbook on the NCARB website. Although it does not (at this time) make allowances for separate projects, I have found it to be quite useful for everything else.
ReplyDelete