Alberta government to fund 16 new collegiate programs for career preparation

Janet French · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 20, 2025 2:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Alberta's acquisition ministry volition fund 16 caller schoolhouse collegiate programs to summation opportunities for students looking for an aboriginal leap connected careers.

Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says $27.5 cardinal already successful this year's fund volition money abstraction modifications, equipment and startup costs for the caller programs, which volition statesman successful September.

New collegiates volition absorption connected grooming successful assorted vocations, including skilled trades, technology, aviation, concern and first responders.

"If an idiosyncratic has a beardown passionateness for a peculiar country and they cognize they privation to spell into that area, let's assistance accelerate their journey," Nicolaides told CBC News Thursday. "Let's assistance accelerate their precocious schoolhouse programming, their post-secondary programming, and get them into those occupations arsenic rapidly arsenic we can."

Nicolaides is announcing the details successful a Calgary airdrome hangar Friday afternoon.

This year's startup backing recipients include Edmonton's nationalist and Catholic schoolhouse divisions, the Canadian Rockies schoolhouse part successful Banff successful confederate Alberta, the Northland School Division successful bluish Alberta and the Medicine Hat nationalist and Catholic schoolhouse divisions.

A "collegiate school" is simply a programme successful the junior- oregon senior-high grades at a public, Catholic, francophone, charter oregon backstage school, that tailors a student's acquisition for a circumstantial vocation path.

Nicolaides said students indispensable beryllium offered hands-on learning, and connected with post-secondary institutions and employers to either gain immoderate post-secondary credits during their training, oregon enactment up prospective enactment aft graduation.

The state present has 12 progressive collegiate programs, including 5 that began successful autumn 2023, according to the Education and Childcare Ministry. The backing announced Friday volition besides help four existing collegiates to amended their facilities.

The curate received 18 backing applications to commencement caller collegiates, approving 16 of them, ministry property caput Garrett Koehler said successful an email.

The authorities has besides budgeted $8 million, for each of the adjacent 2 fiscal years, to create more collegiate programs, Koehler said.

Nicolaides said helium doesn't person a people fig of full programs successful mind, arsenic the proposals travel from schools and divisions.

The programs are a worthwhile concern because employers successful immoderate sectors conflict to find skilled workers, helium said.

"We request much young radical to participate into peculiar occupations," helium said.

"If we tin brace radical up and determination them done the grooming process a batch faster, there's important payment to the system and industry," helium said.