Alberta Career Education Task Force

LRSD Career Practitioners Christina Bazell and Lettie Croskery recently participated in Alberta Education’s Career Education Task Force engagement sessions to share ideas to improve Alberta’s career education programming. 

The task force will focus primarily on career education for grades 7 to 12 and how to effectively prepare students for their transition into post-secondary studies or employment.

As part of these conversations, the Career Services team was able to share insights regarding the importance of career education and support and the challenges rural students’ may experience in accessing a wide range of career exploration opportunities, potentially more readily available in urban centres.

A highlight of their involvement was the opportunity to share some of the unique programming available in LRSD to help students explore careers! Examples of this include our PEAKS Campus in the Crowsnest Pass, Ski Academy in Lundbreck, and numerous dual credit course opportunities (with Olds College and Lethbridge College) throughout our division and ongoing career information sessions, post-secondary fairs, and exploration opportunities for LRSD families offered by our Career Practitioners.

Highlights of suggestions discussed in these sessions include:

• Importance of providing career activities, education, and conversations throughout the K-12 curriculum
• Exploring the possibility of dividing CALM (Career and Life Management) course curriculum into multiple grades rather than one 3-credit course in Grade 10 or 11
• Placing increased emphasis on post-secondary open house events and career exploration activities 
• Develop programming where guest speakers present sessions related to the curriculum from an industry/workplace perspective 
• Encourage alternate program delivery for rural schools, for example mobile labs for trades and environmental science courses
• Include local industry and experts in the curriculum planning process

Parents and students are invited to provide feedback to help in the process as well. Please connect with your school’s Career Practitioner for more information.