Edmonton schools provide alternatives to traditional career trajectories

It's no secret that Canadian youth are struggling to find work.

Data published on Indeed shows a 22 per cent decrease in summer jobs, and people between the age of 15 to 24 have the highest unemployment rate amongst Canadians, at 14.3 per cent as of April 2026.

With these numbers in mind, high schools in and around Edmonton are turning to programs like The Educational Partnership Foundation to try and give students a quicker path to employment. The foundation offers trades-centric programs, with the goal of having high school students go straight into apprenticeships.

At their students' graduation event on Thursday, representatives from participating school boards and investors gathered and talked about their goals with the program.

"This program is wonderful," said Graeme Dowdell, program co-ordinator with the Career Pathways team at Edmonton Public Schools. "It gives our students lots of opportunities to try out things that they maybe wouldn't otherwise have access to. They get to work with mentors that they normally wouldn't otherwise have access to at the training facilities as well."

Dowdell said the school board believes any opportunity it can make for students is a good one, and praised the foundation's assistance with that.

These opportunities are being offered at a time when the provincial government is investing $338 million in skilled trades. Jay Stewart is a trustee the foundation's main outside investor, the Workforce Development Trust. He believes high school students need to be shown that the trades are an option as early as possible, arguing that the trades can offer young people faster employment and less debt while avoiding post secondary schooling.

"We think it's really important to have a lot of awareness and education for the kids at the younger age, so they understand what they're getting into, and the advantage to being in a trade."

Stewart believes that an aging workforce will soon be retiring, leading to more jobs for youth.

Stewart also recognizes that it's a slow job market. "I think there's a little bit of a lull in the construction industry in general. I think there's a lot of things going on that are causing that," Stewart said. "We're seeing a big slow in the oil industry, the heavy industrial stuff."

With Canada in a technical recession, jobs will continue to be hard to come by for young people and Dowdell believes schools need to continue to lift kids up with new skills to learn.

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