OLDS — During a visit to Olds College on Thursday June 20, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides praised the Central Alberta Collegiate Institute (CACI), a program designed to help students choose the trades or other careers.
He also said a visit he and other education officials took to Germany a couple of weeks ago has him considering whether Alberta could adopt a German model, which encourages kids to go on career paths at a younger age than they do in this province.
The CACI is a partnership of Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD), Olds College, Red Deer Polytechnic, Red Deer Public School Division the Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division, and the Wolf Creek Public School Division.
Another partner is Careers The Next Generation, an industry-led public/private not-for-profit foundation comprised of representatives of industry, schools, government, and communities to help youth choose successful career paths.
CESD chair Holly Bilton is a big supporter of the CACI.
She said the CACI was the first collegiate in the province to get going after funding for it was made available a couple of years ago.
Nicolaides and Bilton both said while students are encouraged to take whatever path works for them, the trades have been a strong focus because there’s a severe shortage of tradespeople in Alberta.
During an interview with local news media, Nicolaides said the German schooling model is food for thought.
“We can’t replicate what’s happening in other countries, but I think we can learn some lessons,” he said.
“The big takeaway for me was a lot more exposure to career options at earlier ages, so I’m curious to see what we can do in Alberta to give students more exposure to career options at earlier ages.”
Bilton explained that the CACI is a wrap-around model to help students choose their career path.
That could include dual credit, where students simultaneously earn high school and post-secondary credits pursuing a course, or other ways, such as work-integrated learning, where a student works at a job in an industry or profession as an intern.
Bilton said approximately 600 dual credits are available from many post-secondary organizations in the province for courses leading to a wide variety of careers for students.
“I just think that the robustness of the model, coming from the work-integrated learning piece and the dual credit piece and the support of the schools and industry, is just phenomenal for students,” she said.
“And it’s for every student. There’s so many opportunities for students to become really successful citizens in our communities, so it’s great.”
Bilton said research shows that the transition rate – the percentage of students who from Grade 10 enter post-secondary degree programs -- is 28 per cent for students who’ve taken a dual credit program.
That figure is only 16 per cent for students who haven’t been enrolled in a dual credit program.
The transition rate for students who go into post-secondary non-credential (trades) programming is 71 per cent for students who’ve taken dual credit programs versus those who haven’t.
“That’s why that’s so exciting,” she said. “We see a more robust number of students heading for post-secondary, which we truly believe will help them be successful.”
After speaking to CACI delegates, Nicolaides toured a few classes at Olds College to see students in action.
