For high school students

Start before you graduate.

Funding for the September you finish high school closes in June, while you are still in class. That is the whole reason this page exists. Here is what to do in grade eleven, what to do in grade twelve, and who to call.

The date that catches people

15 June

Applications for the fall intake close on 15 June, before final report cards are out. Wait until you have graduated to start and the September you were aiming at has already closed, which leaves January.

Call (306) 466-4959 Email the office All the deadlines

Nothing about that first call commits you to anything. You are not applying, you are not choosing, and you are not using up a chance. You are making sure the office knows you are coming so the dates arrive before they matter rather than after.

What to do, and when

Four moves, spread over two years.

None of these is hard, and none of them is urgent on its own. It only goes wrong when the whole lot is left until the spring you graduate, which is also the term you are writing finals.

  • Start here Tell the office you exist. One phone call. You do not need a school picked, a program chosen, or marks you feel like showing anybody. From that point on you get told what is coming instead of finding out afterwards, and you have a name and a number to ask questions with for the next two years.
  • Apply to the schools. Applying to a school and applying for funding are two different things, and the school comes first. Program deadlines vary, and the competitive ones tend to close earliest, so check the date for every program you are interested in rather than assuming they share one.
  • Get the funding application in. Fall intake closes 15 June. If your acceptance letter has not turned up by then, call rather than sit on it. The office can tell you in a couple of minutes where that leaves you, and a conversation before the date is worth more than a complete envelope after it.
  • Send your final marks. Your most recent transcript is one of the documents the office needs, and once you are finished that is your final high school one. Photograph every page before it leaves your hands, so that nothing going missing in the post means starting again.

What it can look like

Not all of it takes four years.

A lot of people hear "post-secondary" and picture a four year degree and a debt to match, then decide quietly that it is not for them. Here is what the eleven members who finished this year actually did.

Certificate

Usually the shortest route. Length varies by program, so check the one you are looking at.

  • Electrical Applications
  • Meat Cutting

Diploma

Often around two years, and often the fastest way into a licensed job.

  • Business Administration
  • Business Accounting
  • Veterinary Technology
  • Jewelry Design

Degree

Usually four years, sometimes with a diploma stacked underneath it first.

  • Indigenous Social Work
  • Dental Therapy
  • Bachelor of Science

See the class of 2026

If you have no idea where to start

Start from what you already like doing.

Not from a job title. Pick the line that sounds most like you, learn the word the schools use for it, and go and read three programs. That is the whole exercise, and it is enough to make the phone call a useful one.

Check this before you pick next year's classes.

Apprenticeship in Saskatchewan will not take modified or general math and science. The Commission's own wording is that individuals with ‘modified’ or ‘general’ classes in math or science do not meet our entry requirements, and the level it wants differs from trade to trade. If there is any chance you want a trade, that is a conversation with your school before the timetable is set, not after you have graduated.

Worth knowing too: an apprenticeship starts when somebody hires you. The registration follows the job rather than the other way round, so the thing to be looking for in grade twelve is an employer.

The entrance requirements, trade by trade

These are examples of where to look, not a complete list and not a recommendation of one school over another. Regional colleges, schools in other provinces and programs nobody here has thought of are all fundable. The office can point you at more.

When you do call

Six things worth asking.

Written down so the call is easier to make. You are not being tested and there is no wrong way to start, but having something on the page in front of you helps on a day when the phone feels heavy.

  • I am in grade eleven. What should I be doing this year?
  • What does the funding actually cover, and what does it not?
  • I am interested in this. Where do people usually go for it?
  • What marks or classes do I need for that, and am I on track?
  • What do I have to have ready before I can apply?
  • If I am not sure yet, can I still start a file with you?

Worth doing early

Start a folder.

Most applications that stall are missing one document rather than being wrong about anything. Several of the things you will be asked for exist already: your status card or band number, your transcript, a direct deposit form from your bank, and your program details once you have chosen. Putting them in one place costs an afternoon in grade eleven and nothing at all in June.

The full list of what you need

And beyond this office

This is not the only funding.

Bursaries and scholarships from other organisations sit on top of what the Nation provides rather than cancelling it out. A lot of them have their own deadlines in the winter of grade twelve, which is another reason the looking is better done a year early than a month late.

Other funding you can stack

If you are not sure

You do not need a plan. You need a shortlist.

Nobody expects a seventeen year old to have a career settled, and the office is not going to ask you to defend a decision you have not made. But "no idea" and "nothing to go on" are different things. What you need by the autumn of grade twelve is not an answer about the rest of your life. It is three programs you are curious enough about to apply to, which is a far smaller thing, and it is what the whole timeline above actually runs on.

For parents and guardians

You can make the first call.

Plenty of them are made by a parent, a grandparent, an auntie or whoever is doing the pushing. The office will talk to you about how the program works and what the timing looks like. The application itself has to come from the student in the end, but finding out what is involved does not.

How the program works

One call, two years early.

You do not have to know what you want to do yet. You only have to be known to the office before the date rather than after it.

Call (306) 466-4959 Email the office

Deadlines  ·  What you need  ·  Contact