COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT

The CA evaluates your ability to apply your occupational therapy knowledge, skills, attitudes, and judgment to ensure that you have the entry-level competencies required for safe and ethical practice in Canada. Your competencies are measured against ACOTRO’s Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada, 3rd Edition.

A competent occupational therapist must be able to:

  • Assume professional responsibility
  • Think critically
  • Demonstrate OT practice knowledge
  • Use an OT process to enable occupation
  • Communicate and collaborate effectively
  • Manage their own practice and advocate within systems

Please be sure to review the Competency Assessment: Applicant Guide for Remote Delivered Assessment, which you can find on the SEAS Forms and Guides page. This guide provides detailed information on the remote delivered assessment.

Before starting your CA, you must provide valid identification to authenticate your identity to the assessor. The only accepted identification will be your primary identification document that you submitted to SEAS. If you do not bring this identification to the assessment, the CA will be cancelled, and your fee will not be refunded.

Assessment Format

The CA is conducted by an occupational therapist trained in assessing competencies.

The assessment is a 6.5-hour, interview-style assessment. The assessment is broken down in three sections:

  1. The Behaviour Based Interview
  2. Assessment Case
  3. Treatment Case

All three sections follow a similar question format:

  • The assessor will present the essential competency being assessed
  • You will then be asked the core question related to that competency

Competencies are assessed through demonstration of performance indicators. Each competency in ACOTRO’s Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada, 3rd Edition has a set of performance indicators.

Performance indicators describe the performance expected by occupational therapists. The assessor will be measuring your performance of each of the performance indicators in the CA.

If your response to the core question does not address each performance indicator, the assessor may ask you probing questions, to elicit additional information.

The following is an example:

Essential competency: 5.1 Communicates effectively with the client, inter-professional team, and other stakeholders using client-centred principles that address physical, social, cultural, or other barriers to communication

Core question: Describe a situation in which a client had a learning barrier, which impacted the delivery of your OT services, and how you handled that.

Probing question: What specific learning barrier did you identify? (This probing question measures performance indicator 5.1.5 – Assesses the specific learner needs.)

Note: The assessor will not provide you with feedback on your responses or score during the assessment.

Scheduling the Competency Assessment

After you have paid your 3rd installment fee, the SEAS Associate will contact you by email to schedule the CA.

Please refer to the ACOTRO/SEAS Policies page for information on rescheduling fees.

Preparing for the Competency Assessment

You can prepare for the CA by reviewing the essential competencies and performance indicators of the following units in ACOTRO’s Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada, 3rd Edition. Core competencies include:

  • Professional responsibility
  • Critical thinking
  • Practice knowledge
  • Occupational therapy practice process
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Practice management

Webex Training Practice Session

The remote CA is delivered on the Webex Training platform. The SEAS Associate will invite you to a Webex practice session, prior to your CA. During the practice session, you will be able to test your computer system, practice using the platform tools, and become familiar with Webex features for the remote delivered CA. You are strongly encouraged to participate in this practice session.

CA Re-takes

You are permitted two attempts at the CA. You may request a re-take of the CA if your score on the first attempt is a failure. You may also request a re-take of the CA if your score on the first attempt results in mandatory gap-filling.

To request a re-take of the CA, you must do the following:

  • Submit a re-take request form within 30 days of receiving the result of your first CA
  • Pay the re-take request fee, as set out in the ACOTRO applicant fee schedule
  • Pay for the 2nd CA at the time of scheduling the re-take, as set out in the ACOTRO applicant fee schedule (fee for full CA)

Results

You will receive the results of your CA within four weeks of the date of the assessment.

Your results will provide your overall score, as well as your score on each competency unit. There are three possible outcomes:

Overall score of 90% or higher
Minimum requirement for overall score has been met. Gap-filling activities may be required if you have not met the minimum threshold for one or more competency unit.

Overall score of 80% – 89%
Minimum requirement for overall score has been met. Gap-filling activities will be required.

Overall score of 79% or less
Minimum requirement for overall score has not been met and is a failure.

Next Steps

The CA is the last step you take in the SEAS process. All of the results of your SEAS assessments will be reviewed by the Determination Committee.