The Alberta government expects 80,000 additional students to be attending school in the province over the next three years.
Educating all those students will also require a lot more teachers.
In an effort to meet that demand, the government of Alberta will be issuing four new certificates for aspiring teachers that it says will help qualified professionals enter the classroom sooner.
“These pathways will be much more streamlined than anything we have currently and I would expect to see some significant uptake,” said Alberta Education Minister Demetrious Nicolaides.
Students in their final year of an education degree, internationally-educated teachers, tradespeople and skilled professionals will all be eligible to apply.
They will have to complete teacher preparation training through a post-secondary institution to gain entry to a classroom, but if successful, they will be eligible to teach students in grades 7 to 12 in subjects that align with their experience.
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“I can accept that not everyone involved, in this case you ask about the trades, would necessarily be a good teacher,” said Alberta Minister of Advanced Education Myles McDougall.
“But that’s why there are other criteria involved. It’s not just anybody — they take the preparation course (then) they’ll be interviewed by the school boards.”
The school boards will continue to oversee the hiring process and make classroom placement decisions.
The certificate for final year education students will be valid for one year while they are still completing their degree.
Applications for the new teacher certificates will open on June 1 and the government says the first of the eligible teachers could be in the classroom in the fall.
The govt should know that Universities are failing kids based on their practicum when students are on the Dean’ list. They are also creating rules making it harder to pass. When Alberta is screaming for teachers, maybe talk to the Universities.
Typical con reaction: rather than actually solve the problems that keep new grads out of schools or leads them to leave withing 4-5 years, or less, make up new problems which will only make things worse. Look at what Ford is doing in Ontario. Teachers tell him how to solve the problem and he ignores them. Guess what? These new categories of teachers will face the same problems and quit rather than accept them.
Screen these new teachers for gender ideology, make sure they’re there to teach and not fetish on kids like that shop teacher in wacky Onterrible.
The school boards have consistently been shown to be problematic.
What teacher would want to start a career in Smithberta???
Lawyers, yes.
Med school no. Teachers no.
Who would want to work for Smith in education?