Standardize degrees

Re. Kelowna child's $3,000 autism assessment turned out to be useless (Castanet,July 29)

(In the story) SJ warns us about the complications that may occur when working with an unlicensed therapist.

I would like to share my personal experience. Having grown up in Netherlands where I obtained my engineering degree, I worked for 10 years in Holland for an international energy company before I got the opportunity to work abroad as engineer.

Without any problems, I worked for 22 years in six countries on three continents in engineering positions. Then I retired and had the opportunity to settle in Canada as permanent resident.

The interesting thing in Canada is that here, my engineering degree is not recognized. In other words, I am not allowed to call myself an engineer in Canada as I am not licensed. (It does not) bother me because I am retired, but it is a bit funny after all the years working as engineer outside the country where I was born and where I studied.

In an earlier letter to Castanet I have pleaded for a global standardization of university and college degrees such that examples as SJ describes (so this) can be avoided as much as possible.

I hope one of our MP’s will take this issue on and pursue a solution on the federal level.

Ronald Ratgers, Kelowna