The role of testing in professional certification for newly arrived foreign-trained professionals to Canada

Testing for licensure and certification, as one of the essential components for professional licensure and certification, is utilized as a powerful decision-making tool to include or exclude internationally educated professionals from their respective professions in Canada. This report examined the role that testing plays in professional licensure and certification from the perspectives of newly arrived, internationally educated professionals (IEPs) - medical doctors, nurses, engineers, and teachers, and their respective professional associations. Face-to-face interviews were employed as the method of data collection. Interviews with IEPs were conducted in two settlement environments, Kingston and Windsor, in Ontario, Canada. The findings of the study illustrate the complex role that testing plays in successfully supporting internationally educated professionals to continue to practice as an essential and integral part of Canada's accomplishing its long-term social and economic goals.