AUGUST 2026
RE: TRADES CERTIFICATION READINESS AND CREDENTIAL PORTABILITY IN ALBERTA
Dear Mr. McFee,
Alberta is filling the trades pipeline at record rates. More than 78,000 people are registered apprentices in this province right now, the highest number on record, and Budget 2026 puts $96 million behind keeping it that way. Almost every program, grant and campaign in the country is pointed at the entrance.
The failure is at the exit. Nationally, a record 101,541 people registered as apprentices last year; roughly 30.9 per cent discontinue before they ever reach the certification exam, and of those who do reach it, far too many do not pass. Alberta does not publish its own figure. What we know is that every person who enters and does not come out holding a ticket represents money already spent, capacity already counted, and a worker the province still does not have.
Widening the exit is the cheapest skilled capacity Alberta can buy. It needs no new program, no new legislation, and no one new to move here.
Measure readiness first, then train exactly what is missing. Then let the proof travel anywhere in Canada.
The first instrument is ReadyEngine®, a learning engine that turns a regulated exam blueprint into a live, exam-calibrated readiness score. In a live, regulator-accredited licensing program it produced a 15-20 point pass-rate improvement, 81 per cent to 96 per cent within two attempts, and a 48 per cent reduction in time to complete programs. It has crossed four regulated domains without changing the algorithm, and it is moving into the skilled trades now. Page 02 sets out the evidence, and five levers that stack toward a hundred thousand certified workers, beginning with the one we can already price.
The second is Oliu®, a pan-Canadian trust network for verifiable digital credentials, built on the production-mature W3C standard. A credential issued through Oliu® is tamper-evident, held by the worker on their own phone, and verifiable by any employer, site or province in seconds. Alberta remains the issuer and keeps the power to revoke. Page 03 sets out how it works and how it sits alongside the wallet Alberta launched last year.
We are writing to you rather than to a program area because the exit crosses four of them at once: apprenticeship in Advanced Education, employer programs, newcomer recognition, and the credential itself in Technology and Innovation's wallet. No single ministry owns it.
We ask for nothing today except your attention. We wanted you to see it first.
Where this work meets Alberta's plan.
Drawn from the Government of Alberta Strategic Plan 2026-29. We have kept this deliberately high level.
The instrument that proves a worker is ready, before the exam, not after. The evidence, the mechanism, and five levers toward 100,000 workers.
A pan-Canadian trust network for verifiable digital credentials, instant to verify, impossible to quietly fake, portable across provinces.
We Know Training Inc.: six brands, three customer personas, and one engine underneath, how it all fits together.