ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2022 - 40

Province-wide media coverage
achieved thanks to
ASET member from Ukraine
BY MICHELE PENZ
ASET HAS RECEIVED UNPRECEDENTED, widespread
media coverage this year thanks to the dedication, hard
work and remarkable story of ASET member Mila Wagner.
Wagner, a native of Kyiv, Ukraine, made the difficult decision
to move to Canada after Russia invaded Crimea, a part of
Ukraine, in 2014. It took her a couple of years to prepare but
she and her three-year-old son, Nikita, arrived in Alberta in
the autumn of 2016.
While she was happy to be in her new country, she faced a
tough road getting work in her field, despite the fact that she
had multiple engineering technology-related degrees from
her homeland. Because she lacked Canadian credentials, no
one would interview her. After struggling to make ends meet
for her and her son through menial work - largely cleaning
jobs - she eventually returned to school and earned a civil
engineering technology diploma at Lethbridge College and
is now working in her field.
Unfortunately, Wagner had been unaware that ASET had
established a faster route into a career for foreign-trained
engineering technology professionals like her through
its competency-based assessment program, which was
launched in 2016. The first of its kind in Canada and pioneered
by ASET, it enables engineering technology professionals
to gain purchase in their career fields without having
to return to school full-time. ASET eliminated the Canadian
work experience requirement, making it one of the few regulatory
bodies in Alberta to do this.
To make it even easier for some foreign-trained engineering
technology professionals to work in their field in Alberta,
ASET announced last May that it would be waiving application
fees for those with refugee status, particularly engineering
technology professionals from Ukraine.
Impassioned by ASET's support of
professionals from her homeland,
Wagner generously agreed to serve
as an interview subject for a media
campaign promoting the two initiatives:
competency-based assessment
program and fee waiver for refugees.
The campaign, which started off small,
expanded over time and lasted an
unexpected four months. The story
was pitched to most every news outlet
in Alberta communities where ASET
members reside. The majority of those
outlets picked up the story and, in some
cases, twice.
Wagner, a busy technologist-in-training and mom, graciously
donated countless hours of her time to participating
in dozens of media interviews. She did this expertly while
also maintaining regular communications with family back
home in Ukraine. This included finishing a media interview
mere moments before receiving terrifying news that a Russian
missile had struck a shopping mall in the city where her
parents live. Thankfully, everyone was safe and sound.
Now that the campaign is finally winding down, Wagner has
been able to celebrate some personal good news: she was
successful in bringing her niece, Polina, a Ukrainian refugee
temporarily living in Germany, to Alberta and enrolling her in
the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
40 | FALL 2022 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA
ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2022

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