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Alberta.ca Account
Part of New and proposed legislation

Strengthening vocational training

The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act (formerly Bill 3) will help protect students investing in their future by modernizing legislation governing the province’s private career colleges.

Status: The Private Vocational Amendment Act received Royal Assent on November 26, 2025.
Ministry responsible: Advanced Education

Overview

The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act (formerly Bill 3), amends the more than 20-year-old Private Vocational Training Act. The amendments to the Act are designed to enhance oversight and transparency of the private career college sector and better protect the investments students are making in their education. 

Private career colleges play a vital role in Alberta's adult learning system, offering diverse and flexible vocational training that responds to the changing needs of Alberta's economy.

Since 2019, there has been significant growth in Alberta’s private career college sector and concerns have been raised about school operations and training quality. Aggressive and misleading recruiting tactics have been reported.

The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act  will foster transparency and align Alberta’s legislation more closely with other Canadian jurisdictions, stabilize and strengthen the sector and position it for innovation to support Alberta’s economic growth, while ensuring quality education for students.

Key changes

The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act, will:

  • enhance student protection by:
    • establishing a student tuition protection fund
    • voiding agreements between schools and students that break tuition refund or consumer protection rules
    • establishing authority to set rules for private career colleges on using recruiters and financial incentives used to recruit students (to be defined in regulations and policy)
  • increase transparency by:
    • authorizing the publication of information about private career colleges and their licensed programs and requiring private career colleges to publish information
  • increase quality by:
    • improving oversight tools and strengthen program and training delivery standards

Read the Bill 3, the Private Vocational Training Amendment Act fact sheet to learn more.

Next steps

The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act is anticipated to come into force in fall 2026.

We will amend the Private Vocational Training Regulation and develop policy to expand on the provisions outlined in the act after connecting with stakeholders.

Learn more about the Private vocational training engagement.

When the act and regulation come into force, changes will be introduced in phases to allow private career colleges sufficient time to adjust and minimize operational impacts. When available, details about the timing for implementing key policy changes will be communicated to stakeholders and published on this site.

We are committed to sharing information about the amendments with private career college operators and their associations, student advocacy groups, industry partners and other stakeholders.

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