The ABA Certificate Program provides students with highly specialized education and applied knowledge in conducting behavioural assessments and developing and implementing behaviour change programs. As a student, you gain a solid understanding of the theory and principles underlying ABA, and training in the application of behavioural principles in diverse settings and situations.
The Certificate Program has been verified to provide the coursework requirements needed to sit for the BCaBA® exam by the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Those who want to sit for the BCaBA® exam will also need a bachelor’s degree and will need to accrue the required experience hours in addition to the coursework provided by this program.
To complete the program and become certified through the BACB, students must meet three requirements and then pass the BCaBA® exam. These students may also request a certificate of completion for the ABA Certificate program from UNB CEL. Some students may not desire to become certified through the BACB®. In these cases, students would request a certificate of completion for the ABA Certificate program from the UNB Registrar's Office. These processes are summarized in the following figure:
Learn more about additional BCaBA exam requirements.
The on-campus program begins each Fall. The application deadline for students who want to enrol in the on-campus program is March 31. Online program applications are reviewed as they are received.
This program is appropriate for students who are currently working on or already have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology (or a related field) who want to work with individuals with complex behaviour needs. It is also appropriate for those wishing to pursue graduate study in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). Students must have completed at least 6 credits of Introductory Psychology in the past seven years with a minimum of a B average. Those with upper-level psychology courses within the last seven years will not be required to have the introductory psychology credits in the last seven years. Those who need to meet this requirement prior to applying to the program may be able to enrol in one of UNB CEL's Psychology open-entry courses.
The program consists of six 3-credit hour courses, three 6-credit hour practicum courses, and three 1-credit hour courses, plus pre-requisite courses according to admission review. Course material is based on the BACB 5th Edition Task List.
The delivery of courses is accessible through online learning technologies to accommodate distance-based students.
On-campus ABA Certificate Program students complete their experience hours in practicum courses. The practicum courses consist of three 6-credit hour practica established at UNB practicum sites and will consist of 10-20 hours of practical experience per week (40-80 hours per month). These students will be expected to enrol in the following courses:
Online ABA Certificate Program students, on the other hand, complete their experience hours as supervised fieldwork. The online student experience is comprised of a 1300-hour supervised fieldwork requirement. Students may use their current place of employment as a placement if it involves working with the population they are interested in, if their place of employment agrees that the student can accrue their experience in that setting, and they find a supervisor who is willing to supervise the student in that setting and with that population. Online students are responsible for finding their own placement and supervisor but may receive assistance from the Program Director. The location and BCBA supervisor must be approved by the Program Director. After accruing all of their experience hours, and to earn credit for the experience, online students are required to submit a Field Experience Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) form along with a PLA fee ($450 - paid by the student).
Learn more about requirements for experience accrual.
The ABA Certificate Program is offered part-time or full-time. It is expected that a full-time student will complete the program in two standard academic school years and part-time students will complete the program in five academic years or less.
Courses offered on-campus are completed within the term in which they are offered. The 1-credit hour and all 3-credit hour courses are through UNB Open Entry online. Students can complete these courses in a self-paced format allowing them to take up to six months to complete. The experience hours for part-time students must take no longer than five years to complete.
Students may submit their referee's letter in their application. If referees would prefer to send the letters separately, they can email the letter to admissions@unb.ca.
The program recognizes that students may not have a clinical supervisor or academic that they can ask for a letter. In these cases, we ask students to find someone who can clearly attest to the students ability to learn new content and skills as a student (as would be the case for the academic letter) or their ability to work with others in a professional manner and their skills as an employee (as would be the case for the supervisor letter).
