UPDATED: Alberta government to spend $43 million on Advanced Skills Centre at NAIT

The Alberta government will be spending $43 million to plan the Advanced Skills Centre (ASC) at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), training an additional 4,200 apprentices annually. By funding the ASC, the Alberta government said it will deliver comprehensive, innovative apprenticeship and technology-based education focused on four areas — construction, transportation, manufacturing, and energy. “Alberta is leading the way in skills and trades education,” said Alberta Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney in a Tuesday press release. “The Advanced Skills Centre at NAIT will see more apprentices trained in four sectors critical to our economy, while fostering innovation not just in the Edmonton region, but throughout northern Alberta and beyond.”The Alberta government said planning funds will help prepare for construction, which will start in 2025. It added the ASC will add 640,000 square feet of new state-of-the-art learning space to NAIT’s main campus and support the evolution and growth of programming over time, allowing it to meet emerging needs to support Alberta’s diverse, competitive industries. NAIT President and CEO Laura Jo Gunter pointed out this funding from the Alberta government “acknowledges the crucial role of skilled trades in the economy and NAIT’s role in delivering apprenticeship education that is essential for our province’s prosperity.” “In collaboration with industry and the community, NAIT is set to modernize and expand our training capabilities,” said Gunter. “This is an investment in our vision, setting the stage for Alberta’s future.”PCL Construction Chief Operating Officer, Heavy Industrial Jason Idler said with many projects on the horizon, Alberta’s future has never looked better. “This state-of-the-art facility goes a long way to ensuring we have the workforce we need today to build the infrastructure we need tomorrow,” said Idler. Because students and faculty should have access to the most updated learning and training spaces, the Alberta government said this spending is crucial. When construction is completed, it said the ASC will include flexible, adaptable learning spaces that can be expanded to accommodate program growth or the introduction of new programs to meet labour market demands. Sawhney followed up by saying the skilled trades labour shortage has been around for a while. “We’ve had a shortage for a long time, and right now, our economy is on fire, particularly here in Alberta,” she said. “We’re leading in economic growth, so we just haven’t kept up with the number of workers that we need.” Although registration numbers are up, she said politicians “know that we need to do more work in terms of encouraging more people to come into the trades, because that gap has existed for a long time.” She acknowledged the Alberta government needs to do more work.The Alberta government said in 2023 it was creating more than 1,000 new spaces for students in high-demand apprenticeship programs at post-secondary institutions.READ MORE: UCP boosts funding by $15 million to Apprenticeship Learning GrantsThrough Budget 2023, it provided a funding boost of $15 million over three years to the Apprenticeship Learning Grants. With the increase, total funding for the grants will be $42 million in 2023-2024. “This investment will help post-secondary institutions across Alberta create new spaces for students to build rewarding careers in the skilled trades,” said former Alberta skilled trades and professions minister Kaycee Madu.

UPDATED: Alberta government to spend $43 million on Advanced Skills Centre at NAIT

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