Engineering Opportunity, from Nigeria to Alberta

APEGA’s international credentialing process ensures engineers can immigrate here and do what they do best

As the first of four children born to parents who were healthcare professionals in Nigeria, Eghon Odigie, P.Eng., was already following his family’s path in medicine by the time he was in high school. He excelled at the sciences, especially biology, even reading anatomy and physiology textbooks in his own time under his parents’ approving gaze. “The general push—or should I say the general encouragement—was in the medical line,” he smiles.

A Change in Direction

But near the end of high school, two things happened. Odigie couldn’t shake his “innate fear of blood,” and he took extra classes to prepare for the matriculation exam required for university admission. Some of those classes had the kind of teacher who leaves a mark on the rest of a student’s life.

“I've always been someone who learns better when I know the reason why I'm learning something, from first principles,” Odigie explains. “Most of my high-school teachers didn’t do a good job at this, but one teacher did. And the ease with which he did it greatly fuelled my interest in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and by the last year of high school, I became way better in those courses than even biology. It got me thinking: why do I want to study medicine and become a medical doctor? Is it just because my dad is pushing me that way?”

After talking with his father, Odigie went to university to study petroleum engineering and graduated with distinction. He started working for Shell as a wells engineer, working on planning, designing and executing drilling, completions, workover, well services, and well abandonment operations.

A Global Career Takes off

His early career brought him to the Netherlands and to Houston, Texas, where he fell in love with the cowboy way of life. “I just felt this sense of freedom, this sense that I can achieve anything I want to achieve.”

Given his high-paying job, the high-achieving Odigie, didn’t have much reason to immigrate to Canada, but he wasn’t alone. “We didn’t move for economic reasons—my wife and I were doing extremely well, but like most people, we emigrated because of our kids. Not everyone has the opportunities that I had, but Canada gives everyone that opportunity, and this is something I wanted for my kids.”

Alberta Bound

With its booming oil industry and cowboy culture, Alberta—specifically Cowtown Calgary—made the most sense for Odigie and his family. “It was closest to the Texas feel for me,” he laughs.

After arriving in Alberta, Odigie applied for his professional engineer designation with APEGA and received a decision within four months. His next step was to take his required exams for APEGA membership. But he opted to keep flying out of Canada working internationally in the oilfields every other month because he loved his job at Shell. It took almost two years before his wife said, “You can’t keep doing this.”

Finding Support and Guidance 

Then, he was introduced to Directions for Immigrants (an employment services provider for immigrant professionals), which held an event for internationally trained engineers and geoscientists and facilitated no-cost study preparation classes for exams. Odigie attended the event out of cautious curiosity and was once again inspired by what he heard.

"What piqued my interest was one of the speakers, Enayat Aminzadah, APEGA’s international qualifications officer, who spoke about the registration and licensure process. And I liked the fact that he injected real-life experiences and helped me understand that every application is evaluated on its individual merits and that the registration and licensure process is fair for internationally educated engineers and geoscientists. Then there was a question-and-answer period, and he answered my questions so I could overcome my hesitancy in taking the exam.”

Becoming Licensed 

Odigie passed all of his required exams on his first attempt, and over the next year, he obtained the required Canadian competencies while working in the industry.

Odigie appreciated how the process gives the public a “measure of assurance” of an engineer’s competence. For immigrants like himself, “APEGA is good on timelines and good at explaining the reasons [for the process.] Not everybody knows where to look, so it’s good APEGA is partnering with immigrant-serving agencies and [Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada] to let [newcomers] know how to go through the licensing process.”

Building Alberta’s Future

Today, Odigie is among the many Albertans who have brought their valuable experience and skills to our province, contributing significantly to our thriving culture and economic growth. He dedicates his spare time to volunteering in his community and place of worship and mentoring the next generation of professionals. “I didn’t know I had a knack for it. But I just walk up to someone who’s fresh out of university and coach them because I had lots of that while I was going through my career as well.”

He now works as an operations engineer in Calgary, where he lives with his wife and two children, one of whom shows early signs of an engineering mind. “My son is four, but he’s always taking things apart and fixing them or asking, ‘What makes airplanes fly?’ So, I try to explain it in very simple terms.” 

Watch the video of the interview with Eghon Odigie, P.Eng.