Dual credit – Start-up funding for schools

Important dates

Apply for funding

Funding

Eligible school authorities may apply for one new start-up funding grant of up to $50,000 per school year for new dual credit opportunities. When school authorities partner, they apply together and designate one partner as the lead. The lead authority will receive the funding and be responsible for managing it and reporting on behalf of the partners.

Eligibility

The following school authorities may apply:

• public
• separate
• Francophone
• First Nations/First Nation Education Authority

Mandatory criteria

The dual credit opportunity must:

• be new to the school authority
• align with students’ interests and needs
• connect to a local or provincial labour market need
• align with the dual credit description, guiding principles and criteria
• not be the same or similar to programming funded through other government grant funding
• not be connected to a high school upgrading course or post-secondary continuing education course or program

Priority criteria

The lead school authority could meet one or more of these priority criteria:

• First Nations/First Nation Education Authority
• Francophone Regional Authority
• rural or rural distant school board
• not a previous funding recipient under the Alberta Dual Credit Framework, the Provincial Dual Credit Strategy or for a dual credit pilot project
• identified another school authority as a mentor or partner

How to apply

Step 1. Review the guiding documents

Make sure the new dual credit opportunity aligns with the description, guiding principles and criteria in the:

• Alberta Dual Credit Framework
• Dual Credit Implementation Guide: Supporting the Alberta Dual Credit Framework

Step 2. Complete the application

• Alberta Education Dual Credit Start-up Funding Application (PDF, 108 KB)

Step 3. Submit the application package

Email the application to [email protected] by 5 pm, November 16, 2020.

After you apply

The application review takes 6 to 8 weeks from the application closing date. If funding requests from all applications exceed the $2 million annual maximum, the review follows these 2 steps:

1. Mandatory criteria must be met.
2. Priority criteria must be included.

If start-up funding is approved, it will be distributed to the lead school authority at the beginning of the following school year.

Reporting

School authorities must report on the dual credit start-up funding allocated for a school year. The report needs to identify:

• any partners who collaborated on the programming
• revenue and expenses for the school year
• a description of the learning opportunity
• promising practices that worked
• challenges that were addressed
• how many students participated
• next steps to sustain the programming

If school authorities have not spent the 2019/20 start-up grant funding they were allocated, it can be carried forward to the 2020/21 school year. Once that school year ends, another report needs to be submitted for the reallocated amount.

The lead school authority is responsible for completing and submitting the report by using the interactive Dual Credit Start-up Funding Grant Reporting Template (PDF, 98 KB).

Contact

Connect with the Alberta Education Dual Credit program:

Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Email: [email protected]