BONNYVILLE – Paul Bohnert is the executive director for the Alberta Career and Technology Studies Academy (AB CTS Academy) and he gave a virtual presentation to the MD of Bonnyville during their June 24 council meeting, seeking support for the AB CTS Academy to operate in high schools in Bonnyville and the surrounding area.
AB CTS Academy claims to provide additional education and career exposure opportunities that are not currently available to rural students. It is a virtual platform that partners with high schools to provide them with career training opportunities in their own communities.
Bohnert explained that the organization is in its infancy, and is working with Alberta Education to help advance career education in rural Alberta.
Bohnert asked for a formal endorsement of the AB CTS Academy from the MD of Bonnyville to the Alberta Government, and for assistance with community networking.
Bohnert said the academy is seeking between $2.5 to $3 million for a five-year pilot program.
“We currently have an application on their desk specifically for this academy to be funded by Alberta Education. The more municipalities and towns that we can get on board shows the importance and the relevance [of AB CTS] to your community. We’re asking that you advocate for the project within your community, as well as provincially with regional leaders,” said Bohnert.
The MD of Bonnyville council accepted the presentation as information and approved sending a letter of support for the AB CTS Academy initiative to the Government of Alberta.
According to a document provide to the MD council, “The AB CTS Academy will provide an innovative career education and hundreds of connections to vocational and professional opportunities for grade 10 to 12 students... [and aims to] provide more than 200 introductory and 300 intermediate professional and vocational 1-credit courses that are combined to create a gateway to a personalized career and employment preparation education.”
Bohnert proposed that the number one contributing factor to the Alberta workforce challenge is that high school graduates don’t have enough opportunities to learn about career education and explore options within their regular high school curriculum.
“The research I do takes into consideration what the Alberta Chamber of Commerce has presented over the last couple of years. They talk about how high school students are not prepared to enter the workforce. We see that about 20 per cent are only prepared, so that's a significant number of students that are not even exposed to possible careers. We think that our initiative will help, especially in rural Alberta,” said Bohnert.
Bohnert spoke about Alberta’s current 20,000 job vacancies, and that the government projects over the next 10 years that the number will increase to approximately 60,000 to 75,000 depending on what the economy does.
“The Alberta government feels that we’ve got a significant issue with unemployment rates rising, yet we have lots of jobs. Through our research, we think the reasons for this are that the youth are intimidated by the unknown, they’re underprepared for jobs that are currently available, and they’re also unaware of the jobs that are available,” said Bohnert.
Bohnert explained that the Alberta government’s response has been to build new schools, though he said these projects take too long to meet the demand, often do not have enough Career and Technology Studies labs, and they are mostly built in large urban centres, not rural areas.
Bohnert said they are creating partnerships with municipalities, school boards, economic development groups, industrial and professional associations, and the Chamber of Commerce, to garner support and illustrate to the Alberta Government how they can quickly and effectively react to and address these employment issues.
The AB CTS Academy will not draw on any school funding, and Bohnert made it clear that they are not in competition with schools, but offering a partnership that will allow rural schools to have a broader curriculum.
Some examples of courses offered include fabrication, tourism, design studies, computer science, environmental stewardship, and community care.
“[Students] would log on with us and we would be able to work one-on-one with them, and we’d also provide multiple in-person visits to your area. We have a team of 4 - 6 teachers that would come up and help students find those work placements,” said Bohnert.
Coun. Ben Fadeyiw offered his kudos to the organization for their efforts and commented on the students he knows who would benefit from some career education and training.
“I can't say enough how important this is, so thank you,” said Fadeyiw.
Fadeyiw inquired about the program expanding to include Cold Lake and beyond, and Bohnert explained they would partner with the entire school division and would expand as quickly as possible beyond their set group of pilot schools. Before diving into partnering with school boards, they wanted to make sure they had the support of the municipalities.
Deputy Reeve Darcy Skarsen expressed his support for offering student alternative ways to reach their goals and said he thinks the program is fantastic.
Coun. Josh Crick asked if this program would be available to homeschooled students, and Bohnert confirmed that it would.
Fadeyiw commented on the active career advisory for the francophone school and inquired about how it would pair with AB CTS Academy. Bohnert explained they could offer similar services and that they have bilingual teachers with French and Spanish.
“We always talk about investing in our youth – well this is a perfect way to do it,” said Coun. Don Slipchuk.
