Career and technology studies teachers help junior and senior high school students make effective career decisions, develop skills for personal living, and enter the workforce or further education.

In Alberta, schools select content and organize courses from a provincial Career and Technology Studies (CTS) Program. This program is being refocused from twenty-two strands to five clusters:

• Media, Design and Communication Arts
• Business, Administration, Finance and Information Technology
• Natural Resources
• Trades, Manufacturing and Transportation
• Health, Recreation and Human Services

 There is one standard CTS program for the province but each school selects content based on student and community needs, and available resources. No one school is likely to offer all 600+ CTS courses.

In general, CTS teachers:

• teach courses drawn from one or more strands or clusters
• develop content and various methods of teaching content
• keep up to date in their fields by attending courses, workshops, conferences and seminars.

The duties of CTS teachers are similar to those of other teachers. For more information, see the Secondary School Teacher occupational profile.

CTS teachers work in classrooms, school laboratories and workshops. Some work environments simulate office, workshop, salon, clinic, home or other settings found in business, industry and government. Many hours are spent outside class time working with individual students, preparing lessons and marking assignments.

Teaching can be a demanding job requiring a great deal of physical, mental and emotional energy.

Career and technology studies teachers need a combination of knowledge and skills in education and their subject area.

In Alberta, Career and Technology Studies teacher preparation programs are offered by the following institutions:

• The University of Alberta in Edmonton offers Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree and after-degree programs with a career and technology studies pattern. The admission requirement for the Faculty of Education is one year of pre-professional studies with 24 units of transferable course weight to the student's program major. Admission to pre-professional studies programs generally requires a competitive average in English Language Arts 30-1, three 30 level humanities or science subjects and one other approved 30 level subject. Individuals who are certified journeypersons or who have completed a two year diploma in a CTS area may be awarded advanced standing.
• The University of Lethbridge offers five year combined degree programs and an after-degree B.Ed. program with a specialization in career and technologies studies. Students are admitted to the Faculty of Education after two or three years of university study. Admission to other programs generally requires a competitive average in English Language Arts 30-1 and three other 30 level courses, plus a fifth Grade 12 subject.

For current information about programs, admission requirements and mature student admission policies, please check post-secondary calendars or websites.

CTS teachers are employed by:

• junior and senior high schools
• colleges and vocational centres with integrated or technical occupational programs.

Experienced CTS teachers may advance to administrative positions or specialist positions in large schools, school districts, departments of education, colleges or universities.

CTS teachers are part of the much larger National Occupational Classification 4141: Secondary School Teachers. In Alberta, most people employed in this classification work in the Educational Services industry.

The employment outlook in this occupation will be influenced by a wide variety of factors including:

• trends and events affecting overall employment (especially in the Educational Services industry)
• location in Alberta
• employment turnover (work opportunities generated by people leaving existing positions)
• occupational growth (work opportunities resulting from the creation of new positions that never existed before)
• size of the occupation.

The Alberta Teachers' Association estimates that about 400 teaching positions will become vacant each year due to retirement.

Since teachers' salaries and benefits are determined by negotiated agreements between school boards and their teachers, salaries vary from one board to another. However, all teachers are paid according to a grid system based on their number of years of university training and number of years of teaching experience.

According to the 2009 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, Albertans in the Secondary School Teachers group earned from $21.58 to $53.33 an hour. The average wage was $39.81 an hour.

For more detailed information, see WAGEinfo.

All teachers employed in Alberta's publicly supported schools are members of the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) and are automatically included under the Alberta Teachers Pension Plan Act. Holidays and pensions are specified by provincial legislation. However, teachers often use the summer break period of July and August, or Christmas and spring break holidays, for professional development or for fulfilling additional professional responsibilities.

Post-secondary institution calendars and websites (see Educational Requirements above)

EDinfo website: www.alis.alberta.ca/edinfo

Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) website: www.teachers.ab.ca