VP External: So what’s really going on?

As some of you may be aware, as VP External my role includes attending conferences with the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario (ESSCO) and the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES). But what on earth do we actually do at these conferences? Well a big part of it is professional and leadership development for our delegates. But then at the end of every one, all the VP Externals sit down in a meeting (plenary) and get things done. We pass motions that affect the way ESSCO/CFES run or affect students across the country. I thought in this article, having just attended my final conference as VPX, I’d give you an idea of some of the things that have been happening that have been relevant to you!

One big thing ESSCO and CFES have been pushing for recently is advocacy. For this reason, both have recently introduced a new position for this purpose. There now exists an ESSCO Director of Academic Advocacy and a CFES VP Academic. Each has the responsibility of working towards the development of better engineering education in Ontario/Canada. The CFES elected their first VP Academic in January, while ESSCO approved the new director at the end of May and will be hiring one soon. They will be responsible for addressing issues that are brought to individual engineering societies by their members that the societies are not well enough equipped to handle. Something CFES has recently been fighting for is for a voting seat on the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. The VP Academic will continue this effort, so hopefully we, as students, might get a vote in engineering accreditation in the near future!

On the note of new positions, ESSCO has also introduced a director of sports! This director will be responsible for facilitating communication between engineering societies’ sports teams. Hopefully this means more Ontario engineering sports tournaments in the future!

Finally, at CFES Congress in January, we mandated the CFES executive to put together a plan for helping students in Canada achieve employment. The VP Academic will look into increasing the employability of students, as well as improving employment opportunities.

Those are the big ones! There are plenty more so if you’d like to hear about them just shoot me an email, message me, or just come chat.

Thanks for reading!