The Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is an Alberta Education program that allows high school students to begin their apprenticeship training while completing their high school course work. Full-time high school students in Alberta can begin the program as early as grade 10 and can earn up to 40 credits towards their diploma. Students can select from more than 50 designated trades and occupations to explore.

CAREERS supports RAP by promoting the program within junior and senior high schools and Aboriginal communities across Alberta. CAREERS team members recruit employers from industry and work with schools’ RAP Coordinators to match them with suitable student apprentices.

Here’s how it works:

Stage 1: CAREERS: The Next Generation makes presentations about career choices in the trades in junior and senior high school classrooms across Alberta. Interested students sign up for RAP through their schools’ RAP coordinators.

Stage 2: CAREERS runs workshops for interested students and their parents explaining how the program works. Students and their parents fill out application forms and submit them to their school’s RAP Coordinator.

Stage 3: Students are screened based on their attendance, academic record, application, and attitude. RAP Coordinators, along with CAREERS team members (if possible), interview perspective student apprentices.

Stage 4: CAREERS team members recruit employers from industry to participate in the program. They then work with RAP Coordinators to find a match between an employer and a student based on the student’s trade of choice. Students are interviewed a second time by employers—who then make the final decision on which students they will hire.

Stage 6: After a match is made, students complete a 125-hour workplace internship, which gives them a chance to explore the trade. It is also an opportunity for employers to evaluate their student to ensure a good match. Students receive five high school credits upon completion.

Stage 7: Following the 125-hour period, employers register students with Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training. Students can earn up to 40 high school credits and bank up to 1,000 hours towards their first-year apprenticeship.

Stage 8: Employers and RAP coordinators provide on-going evaluations for RAP students. Students graduate high school, and in many cases enroll in post secondary schooling on their way to becoming a certified tradesperson.