• B.C.'s Looking Ahead Initiative
  In British Columbia, the Looking Ahead Initiative is a collaborative effort to integrate B.C. immigrants. It consists of the HRDC and B.C. government in partnership with various community organizations and regulatory and educational bodies. The Looking Ahead Initiative held a roundtable discussion in March, 2002 on improving access to professions and trades through PLA. The report identified several gaps, including complexity of PLA and differences of PLA between occupations, lack of integration and cross-agency communication, lack of agreement on what a credential is, language barriers, lack of appropriate bridging programs, lack of a single place to look for good information, lack of consistency on core values relating to access/systemic barriers (see www.lookingahead.bc.ca).
• BC pilot project for internationally trained engineers
  Final newsletter for the Pilot Project for Internationally Trained Engineers has been posted at http://www.apeg.bc.ca/intreng/newsletter-publications.html.
  
• New York State Centralized System of Professional Regulation
  New York State was identified as unique by the 1989 Access! Task Force Report because it has a highly centralized system of professional regulation. Unlike Ontario, the state regulates its professions directly. There are no self-regulating professional bodies. Each profession is regulated by a state board which is governmentally controlled. The credentials of all internationally trained candidates are assessed through the Comparative Education Section of the Division of Professional Licensing Services. The section determines whether a candidate's training is comparable to the accredited New York programs. (see
  http://www.nysegov.com/citguide.cfm?displaymode=normal&
  fontsize=100&contrast=lod&superCat=36&cat=248&content=main)
• Province of Quebec - Immigration
  Quebec is the only province with jurisdiction over immigration. Quebec has one of the most well-developed credential assessment systems in Canada. Since 1983, the provincial Division des équivalences has been setting norms for the recognition of foreign credentials. Information on the Quebec professional system can be found at (see www.opq.gouv.qc.ca).

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