The Government of Alberta announced $20 million in funding for NAIT’s Advanced Skills Centre as part of the province’s ongoing investment in the skilled trades.
“The need for skilled tradespeople is already substantial,” Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sawhney said in a press conference at NAIT on March 27. “We’ve responded with investments that create new spaces and opportunities in the skilled trades—investments like the one we are here to announce today.”
In Budget 2024, the province allocated $43 million over three years for the pre-construction planning and design of a new trades and technology learning facility at NAIT. NAIT received $2 million last year, and if Budget 2025 passes, they will receive $20 million this year, with $21 million planned for 2026.
“I’m confident that once complete, the Advanced Skills Centre will be instrumental in meeting the needs of our workers, employers and our growing economy,” said Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade Matt Jones.
“The Advanced Skills Centre is the answer to Alberta’s skilled trade shortage,” NAIT President Laura Jo Gunter said.
The school is positioning the Advanced Skills Centre as a part of its goal to “deliver the most comprehensive, leading-edge apprenticeship and technology-based education anywhere in Canada.”
The facility will include 640,000 square feet of space for programs focusing on the construction, transportation, manufacturing and energy industries. NAIT also proposed adding a 10,000-square-foot space to showcase trades and exploration of technology skills. It is expected that when the centre is operational in 2029, it will have the capacity to train up to 4,200 apprentices every year.
The project still does not have a set date for construction, but Gunter emphasized the institution’s ambition for the facility to be “on time, on budget and on vision.”
“We currently have three years of funding. So this is year two to do the design and planning, which, of course, is really important,” Gunter explained. “At that point, we will be shovel ready, and then at that point as well we’ll know where our funding is and when we can actually start construction.”
With the introduction of an international student cap and changes to the post-graduation work permit from the federal government in 2024, NAIT’s president stated she doesn’t anticipate the new rules having an impact on the school’s new facility.
“Majority of our students in apprenticeship and those technology programs are domestic,” NAIT President Gunter said. “We’re still expecting to see a very strong number of enrollments in both the skilled trades and technology programs. We have seen a significant increase in those domestic market numbers…so we’re not anticipating any changes.”
NAIT will continue the project’s planning and design phase ahead of the final year of funding in Budget 2026. Gunter added that the school plans to begin transitioning from “concept design to detailed architectural planning” in the coming months.
