As a trainee, you must document your professional development and daily activities. You must construct a professional development plan and maintain a practice diary during the length of your articling period.
You will be required to upload a digital copy of your diary during Education Module 6B, Communicating Professional Advice – Application.
What is a Practice Diary?
A practice diary is a written record you will keep daily to document your work and professional development.
The purpose of your diary is to:
provide a chronological, daily written record of your professional development;
document the progress and action that you have undertaken in completion of the professional development plan;
serve as a record identifying the professional work, contacts, and any activities that help to document professional practice and build professional expertise; and
provide a method of reflective practice (process to reflect on professional work by examining a situation, factors involved, decisions, influencing factors, outcomes – expected or not, adjustments to modify outcomes).
Create a Diary
You can use one of the following diary template or create your own
Acceptable Format
The diary may be kept electronically in any file format, or as a hard copy, as long as it has same the columns and information as the templates provided above.
The information content and frequency are the important aspects of the diary. The format is intended to facilitate tracking that information.
Electronic format (.docx, .xlsx, .doc, .xls, .pdf, .jpg, .png) is recommended as it is easier to search for information if needed. It will also be easier to upload for Education Module 6B.
Scanning hard copies: if you keep your diary in hard copy, you will need to upload a scanned copy in Module 6B.
For the 6B upload, you will be required to scan at least three days of entries for each month of your articling period as sufficient evidence of your completed diary. Plan ahead and scan your diary periodically throughout your articling period. Your sponsor is expected to have reviewed your complete diary. Check with your sponsor to ensure they are satisfied with your scanned excerpts before uploading.
When to Start Your Diary
At the start of your articling/enrolment period, you must begin recording in your diary as soon as you become enrolled as a trainee.
Your articling period begins when a complete application for registration has been received at the FPBC office. You can view your date of application from the roadmap screen in the Learning Management System (LMS).
You should record in your diary daily or as often as required to capture the work done and experience gained.
You must maintain your diary for the entire length of your articling/enrolment period. This means from your date of application until you upload it in Module 6B.
Depending on your trainee category and when you enrolled, you may have special minimum requirements.
What to Record in Your Diary
Yes, you can have multiple entries for a given day if you have multiple learnings for that day.
It is a good practice to record each day in your diary. If you are finding that the ‘Things Learned’ column are duplicated from day to day, you can use ditto marks (“) to show that the things learned are the same for a few days. Although this isn’t the best habit, if you aren’t able to record each day for some reason, you can record a group of days worked under one project or one set of tasks.
If you are an enrolled currently in school and eligible for articling credit, you should record your classroom learnings as well as your field work while completing your program.
Due to Freedom of Information (FOI) and privacy laws, it will not be appropriate for us to keep work records bearing company names/logos. You are asked to redact that information as appropriate before uploading your diary for Module 6B. You can omit specific contact details, and use generic terms.
You must record your work experience in your diary from the start of your articling period until you upload it in Module 6B. Do not stop recording work experience in your diary until you complete Module 6B.
At minimum, your diary must cover the number of working days noted in the table above when uploading for Module 6B. Each day of work may be several or just one entry in a diary, depending on how many forestry tasks are carried out.
Diary Review
You should be reviewing your diary with your sponsor monthly throughout your articling period, outside of the LMS. When you upload your diary in Module 6B it should only serve as the final review and confirmation that you have satisfied the diary requirements.
Submit Your Diary
You will be required to submit your diary in the final Module, 6B, Communicating Professional Advice – Application. Your diary must meet the content and minimum entries requirements noted below.
Do not upload your diary at the articling checkpoints.
Articling requirements checkpoints
Please do not upload your diary at the articling checkpoints. The diary is a separate registration requirement.
At the articling requirements checkpoints you will be required to upload a work history form. Read the submission instructions provided at each articling checkpoint.
You will only upload your diary in Module 6B.
Note: you may receive credit for all of your articling requirements checkpoints before you reach Module 6B. However, you must still continuing recording in your diary until you upload it in Module 6B.
Questions
Contact the registration department at admissions@fpbc.ca.
