The Alberta grant for AI training, explained for employers

The Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant replaced the Canada-Alberta Job Grant in fall 2025. It dropped the 21-hour minimum and the credential requirement, which is why a half-day AI course now qualifies. This is how it works, taken from the applicant guidelines rather than from anyone's sales page.

The mechanics

1. 01The employer registers on the Alberta portal and submits an application before training starts, with the provider's course outline or quote attached. Each trainee confirms by email. Once the status reads Application Received, training can begin. Thirty days ahead is recommended, not required.
2. 02The employer pays the provider in full.
3. 03Within 30 days of the end of training, the employer files the completion form with proof of payment and proof of completion.
4. 04Alberta reimburses 50% of eligible costs, up to $5,000 per trainee per fiscal year (April to March) and $100,000 per employer. Reimbursement is reduced dollar for dollar by any other grant used for the same training.

Who qualifies

• Employers: for-profit businesses, non-profits, and First Nations and Métis Settlements operating in Alberta for at least a year. Not eligible: all levels of government, public-sector and publicly funded organizations, public post-secondary institutions and schools, holding companies.
• Trainees: Alberta residents who are citizens, permanent residents, or protected persons. Not claimable: business owners, board members, C-suite, office managers, HR managers, anyone with authority over the employer, contractors, and the owner's immediate family. They can attend; the employer cannot claim for them.
• Training: instructor-led, in an eligible category (business process and operations management, technical, digital and technological all cover AI training for finance and operations teams). Not eligible: leadership development, soft skills, consulting services, coaching, conferences, pre-recorded content with no instructor. Live online training counts as taking place in Alberta.
• Providers: a third party, separate from the employer, for which training is a main business activity and which has been in business and delivering training for at least two years, with a qualified instructor (relevant experience in four of the last ten years).

What the provider has to supply

• With the quote, before you apply: a course outline stating that trainees have access to a qualified instructor; dates and hours; cost per person and per session; delivery method; number of participants; instructor name and qualifications; the provider's legal name, address, and phone; travel costs broken out if any.
• After the course: a certificate of completion per trainee by name, a paid invoice showing cost and payment date, and a letter confirming trainees and completion by name.
• Trainee personal information, including SIN and date of birth, goes from the employer to the portal directly. A provider should never hold it.

How 1113 Technologies handles it

1113 Technologies was incorporated in 2026, so it does not yet meet the two-year provider rule. Engagements that use the grant are delivered and invoiced by EPM ONE Consulting Ltd., our sister company and an Alberta training provider since 2016, with the same instructor and the same course. Say on the first call that you intend to claim, and the engagement is set up that way from the first email: the outline, the invoice, and the certificates all come from the delivering provider. The grant is a help, not the reason to do this. Approval and funding are Alberta's decision, and programs like it have run short of budget in some years.

Summarized from the Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant Applicant Guidelines (Ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration, July 2025). The program's rules govern. Confirm at alberta.ca or by calling 1-855-638-9424.