Dear OACETT members,
As President Mooney advised during the AGM on June 1, the members of Technology Professionals Canada (TPC) (of which OACETT is one) have committed to consulting with their members on the possibility of changing the name of the Certified Engineering Technologist (C.E.T.) certification to Professional Technologist (P.Tech.). The renaming of the certification is intended to arrive at a common national certification for technologists, the same as we have for the technicians with Certified Technician (C.Tech).
Given that there will be a fairly significant investment in marketing and communications related to the renaming of the C.E.T certification to establish the new Brand, the Board is also interested in gathering members’ thoughts on changing the name of OACETT at the same time. Updating the OACETT name would enable alignment to a new P.Tech certification, modernize our brand, and allow for economies in the marketing efforts if completed in tandem.
We have prepared the following information and survey to gather your preliminary thoughts. Please note, this is NOT a decision exercise, nor has a decision already been made. The Board will be reviewing all the feedback from members, and if there appears to be sufficient support resulting from the consultation exercise, this will come to the members for a vote at the AGM on June 7, 2025. Further consultation will also take place during the Annual Chapter Meetings early next year.
As noted above, there will be a cost to changing name(s) – initial staff estimates put the costs at about $160,000 in 2025 to change to P.Tech and an additional $90,000 to add a name change for OACETT (that includes changing all the collateral, updating the website, making changes to the Member Portal and any legal costs). This would be followed by a marketing campaign to launch the new names in 2026, likely an equivalent investment to do properly, though this has not yet been fully costed. OACETT sets aside reserves to enable development of the organization and has sufficient funds to undertake this work.
Staff and the Board of Directors have also developed a further list of pros and cons for your consideration:
