Bill aims to expand apprenticeships beyond traditional skilled trades

The Alberta government has introduced new legislation that could pave the way for apprenticeship-style education to expand beyond traditional skilled trades.

If passed, Bill 67, the Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Education Act, will replace the Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AIT) Act, introduced in 1991.

The new legislation would make a distinction between skilled trades and other professions that want to use apprenticeships for education.

It would allow some professions to use apprenticeship programs, which involve both on-the-job and classroom instruction, without requiring they become a designated trade and require the kind of certification or licensing that comes with that designation.

The legislation would also make changes to how in-class instruction is designed and potentially make it easier for a journeyman certification to translate into post-secondary education credits.

“Should the new legislation be passed, Alberta's government will begin a comprehensive multi-year effort to expand apprenticeships into new careers,” Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said prior to the bill being tabled Tuesday.

“There's no reason why occupations such as coding, graphic design, cybersecurity, ag tech and others cannot be taught through an apprenticeship model.”

Nicolaides said the old legislation was written when apprenticeships were seen as being only for the trades.

“If we wanted graphic design, for example, to be an educational opportunity that is taught through an apprenticeship style of system, it meant that we would then have to designate it as a trade, which comes with a whole host of other regulations, and it would take years and years,” he said.

Under the current model, industry representatives design the courses for the in-class portion of apprenticeship learning.

The new legislation would create a new board of industry representatives to govern trade professions and determine the competencies students need to meet, but government and educational institutions would develop the classroom program based on those standards.

Nicolaides said an end goal is to have a standardized model for how many post-secondary credits a journeyman certificate would be worth.

“An individual who completes a journeyman certificate and then subsequently they want to pursue a diploma or a bachelor's degree, they almost receive no recognition of previous learning,” he said.

“So we will work with our post-secondary institutions to figure out the best approach, but I

There's no reason why ... coding, graphic design, cybersecurity, ag tech and others cannot be taught through an apprenticeship model

think a standard approach to credit recognition is a path that we can pursue.”

In a statement, NDP advanced education critic David Eggen said he is worried the legislation would be used to dictate what classes post-secondary schools should be providing, after the government cut their budgets.

The new legislation also removes what the government says is duplication in the tests and assessments that tradespeople have to pass.

Currently, students complete an on-the-job assessment as well as one test by the post-secondary institution where they do their classroom learning and another set by the apprenticeship and industry training board.

Under the new model, only one on-the-job assessment and one in-class exam would be required.