Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides answers questions from students after a news conference at an Edmonton elementary school in March 2025. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia

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In April, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced four new teaching certificates to meet the growing demand within the education system. Two certificates would allow final year bachelor of education students and qualified international teachers to teach before earning their full degrees or qualifications. Applications for the developmental teacher certificate opened June 1.

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Garrett Koehler, press secretary to the minister of education, said in a statement to Postmedia that it was too soon to tell how many were accepted and more details will come in the future.

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The province said in April post-secondary courses for tradespeople and skilled professionals are expected to be offered as early as this fall, but no details have been released. Koehler said the province is currently working with post-secondary partners to implement the promised expedited teaching certificate pathways.

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“Details related to participating post-secondary institutions, funding allocations and program capacity are still being developed, and more information will be shared once decisions are finalized,” Koehler said.

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Alberta is committing $3 million annually for the next three years to support up to 80 new seats each year for its expedited teaching pathways. The funding will be provided through the targeted enrolment expansion program.

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Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said prior to the teachers’ strike in October, the ATA estimated 5,000 teachers are needed to address class size and complexity issues.

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He said there’s concerns about the deprofessionalization of teaching due to the expedited pathways program and some teachers don’t see it as a true solution.

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“Teachers have concerns about potential teachers coming in who’ve had four courses and one practicum under their belt,” Schilling said.

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“It doesn’t prepare these individuals well enough for the classroom and my concern would be then that you would end up getting a revolving door of people in and out of classrooms because they’re not able to handle the situations that we’re seeing in our classrooms today.”

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Alberta NDP education critic Amanda Chapman said the UCP government has failed to meet their hiring target for teachers. The UCP previously committed to hiring 3,000 teachers over the next three years, but have not said how many of the 3,000 teachers have been hired so far.

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She added there hasn’t been any indication from post-secondary institutions about creating programs or courses for the expedited programs.