Students at Fusion Collegiate, along with staff at TEPF and Secretary of State (Labour) John Zerucelli, at a federal funding announcement at Alberta Carpenters Training Centre on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. The federal government will provide $2.1 million to a Calgary-based program providing students with free training in skilled trades. Hiren Mansukhani/Postmedia

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The federal government is investing $2.1 million in a Calgary-based program that provides school students with free training in the skilled trades.

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“That means there are young people getting training, more people are training in the skilled trades, and more Canadians are getting a chance at good-paying careers,” Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli said at a news conference at the Carpenters Training Centre.

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The federal money will be doled out to The Educational Partnership Foundation (TEPF), a non-profit in Calgary that trains interested high school students in 19 skilled trades of their choice and offers them safety certification, which they could use to begin apprenticeships.

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TEPF President and CEO Barbara Simic said the funding is going to “give us well around 2,200 new apprentices in Alberta who’ve trained locally, who have been hired locally, and who are really adding to our economy.”

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The news comes as youth unemployment in the province was 14.5 per cent in July, down from 20 per cent during the same period last year.

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“Young people going into trades, what I always tell them is AI-proof,” Simic said. “So they’ve got a long career where they don’t need to be worried about in two years AI is taking over, and they don’t have a job.”

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The non-profit’s Trades Career Program, which was launched as a pilot project with the Calgary Board of Education in 2013, now accepts hundreds of students from all kinds of schools in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Innisfail, who are interested in taking up skilled work, including carpentry, electrician, plumber, sheet metal, ironworker, culinary arts and hairdressing.

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The program is usually held in union training centres, and Simic said the funding will allow the organization to host up to 60 classes annually, each comprising around 18 students.

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“There’s a very set curriculum,” she said. “It’s about 80 per cent of what a first-year apprentice would do. Some students will challenge their first-year apprenticeship exam and write the exam, or they will go do their 1,560 hours and then take their test.”

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The non-profit also provides up to $2,000 in bursaries for its students who complete its program and proceed to undertake in-class training at a polytechnic institution.

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“We help them along the way because we want to see them get to Red Seal,” Simic said.

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The most recent announcement will bring the federal government’s total investment in the institution to $5.7 million.