CAREERS: The Next Generation Foundation is enhancing the capacity of communities to develop both the generic employability skills and the employment prospects of their youth.

Started as a pilot project in 1994, CAREERS helps Alberta communities design, develop, and implement applied workplace learning programs that help young people. It has developed a vision for learning in Alberta that integrates worksite and classroom learning, actively making the workplace an extension of the classroom.

The foundation employs a small core of permanent staff, supplemented by persons seconded from its business partners, who help educators to recruit and train employers for participation in off-campus education programs and to conduct career workshops for students.

The CAREERS Foundation has four principal aims, including building community teams focused on employability skills development; recruiting employers for cooperative education positions for students; facilitating community networking and the sharing of ideas; and providing career education and public awareness.