The Faculty of Education graduate program is the only route to registration with the College of Alberta Psychologists.
Earlier this fall, the province announced $780,000 of support to add 15 seats over three years to the Faculty of Education's master's program. ULethbridge was one of 12 post-secondary schools to receive funding, creating a total of 761 new seats in a variety of programs, including psychiatric nursing, psychology, social work, child and youth care, and addiction counselling.
"Ours is the only graduate program that was funded for seat expansion, which is significant because a graduate degree in counselling psychology is the only pathway to registration with the College of Alberta Psychologists, and demand for admissions to these graduate programs is extremely high," says Dr. David Slomp, associate dean of graduate studies and research in the Faculty of Education.
The funding will allow the University to add two integral positions in support of the influx of new students a clinical practicum supervisor and an administrative support for practicum and partnership development. The first cohort of five students has been admitted and will begin their practicum placements in Fall 2025. Additional groups of five students will be admitted in each of the next two admission cycles.
"With a growing need for mental health services, this seat expansion will benefit families across the province," says Dan Williams, Minister of Mental Health and Addiction. "No matter what part of Alberta someone calls home, they deserve access to consistent, high-quality mental health care. Our government is proud to be working with post-secondary institutions, making sure services are available to Albertans in need."
Slomp says it is imperative the students have opportunities to participate in high-quality practicum placements. While some of those can be filled on campus, the new positions will assist in cultivating more relationships within the community.
"The clinical practicum supervisor will work within the University's Counselling Services team to provide supervision for an expanded number of practicum students working within that unit," he says. "Finding quality practicum placement experiences for students seeking to register as psychologists is becoming increasingly challenging. We have great partners, but we need to do more to enrich those partnerships and to expand the number of counsellors we partner with."
The Mental Health Professions Enrollment Expansion grant program committed nearly $10 million over three years to create more spaces to train mental health professionals at post-secondary institutions across the province. To learn more, visit the Government of Alberta website.
