The province has chipped in about $2 million to build trades-related classes and classrooms in St. Albert and Sturgeon County public schools this fall.
Alberta Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced $27.5 million in funding for 20 collegiate schools on June 20. Sixteen of those schools are new, including the ones for the St. Albert Public and Sturgeon Public school divisions.
“This expansion will help meet Alberta’s growing demand for skilled professionals while giving students the tools, training, and connections they need to step into high-demand careers,” Nicolaides said.
Collegiate schools are schools or school programs that offer hands-on training in specific fields in partnership with post-secondary and industry organizations, often involving dual-credit courses (courses that earn students credit toward both a high school and a post-secondary degree). The province has funded 28 collegiate schools since 2023.
Nicolaides said this funding would cover $6 million in operating and $21.5 million in capital costs.
Local collegiates
St. Albert Public hoped to get about $1 million for its St. Albert Collegiate Pathways initiative, said district leadership director Les Kirchner. Most of this money will fund construction of three trades-based labs.
One of the labs will be an enhanced classroom for the Building Futures program, Kirchner said. The district wants to teach students to be entrepreneurs, so it plans to add more tools to this program’s garage-based classroom so students can build, and potentially sell, sheds and benches.
Also planned for the collegiate is a garage-like electrical lab full of cables and breakers for electrical training, Kirchner said. The third lab is an “introduction to the trades” facility to help complex learners train in construction, plumbing and other trades.
Kirchner said the collegiate money would also support a new food mentorship program at Bellerose and other dual-credit courses.
Sturgeon Public has received about $1 million to create the Sturgeon Collegiate, which gathers several trades-related programs under a common banner, said division principal Dan Stephen.
One of these is the new Building Futures program, which will be open to Sturgeon Composite and Redwater School students this fall. Like the program of the same name recently held by St. Albert Public, this program will see some 30 Grade 10 students take core classes on a construction site while working with tradespeople to build a home in St. Albert’s Riverside neighbourhood. Stephen said the collegiate money will fund startup costs for this program.
The collegiate cash will also expand Sturgeon Composite’s Aviation – Flight 15 course, which recently finished its first year, Stephen continued. This course gives students the chance to complete the ground school portion of their pilot’s training and earn their drone piloting certification while also earning credits at MacEwan University. The money will expand the course to cover other aviation jobs such as aircraft mechanic, flight attendant, and air traffic controller.
Sturgeon Composite’s welding, heavy equipment, automotive services, and construction technology courses will get new equipment from this collegiate money, Stephen said. These courses let students learn different trades from journeymen mechanics and in some cases earn credits toward degrees from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
“These are the courses students want to take at school and are excited about,” Stephen said — courses that help them explore careers and find meaning in school.
The new collegiates are expected to open this fall. Visit the St. Albert Public and Sturgeon Public websites for details.
