The Alberta government expects 80,000 additional students to be attending school in the province over the next three years.

Educating all those students will also require a lot more teachers.

In an effort to meet that demand, the government of Alberta will be issuing four new certificates for aspiring teachers that it says will help qualified professionals enter the classroom sooner.

“These pathways will be much more streamlined than anything we have currently and I would expect to see some significant uptake,” said Alberta Education Minister Demetrious Nicolaides.

Students in their final year of an education degree, internationally-educated teachers, tradespeople and skilled professionals will all be eligible to apply.

They will have to complete teacher preparation training through a post-secondary institution to gain entry to a classroom, but if successful, they will be eligible to teach students in grades 7 to 12 in subjects that align with their experience.

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“I can accept that not everyone involved, in this case you ask about the trades, would necessarily be a good teacher,” said Alberta Minister of Advanced Education Myles McDougall.

“But that’s why there are other criteria involved. It’s not just anybody — they take the preparation course (then) they’ll be interviewed by the school boards.”

The school boards will continue to oversee the hiring process and make classroom placement decisions.

The certificate for final year education students will be valid for one year while they are still completing their degree.

Applications for the new teacher certificates will open on June 1 and the government says the first of the eligible teachers could be in the classroom in the fall.

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