Request for Proposals: Career Pathways: Every Future, Every Student

In accordance with CASS Policy 17 – Procurement of Contracted Services, CASS is seeking requests for proposals from interested and qualified independent contractors to research, develop, and deliver various deliverables related to a 2025/26 Career Education Conditional Grant. Detailed descriptions of the available deliverables can be found below.

Working under the direction of the CASS Principal Leadership Consultant, Dr. Gloria Antifaiff, successful independent contractors will engage with system education leaders to gather input, and ensure that project outcomes are current, research-based, relevant, and contribute to advancing K-12 system education leadership in Alberta. All projects will be completed collaboratively with relevant stakeholders identified by CASS. Qualified independent contractors are encouraged to express interest for one or more of the following projects:

Deliverable 1: Advancing System Education Leadership Capacity for Career Education

For the purpose of developing the deliverables, career education is defined as a student-centered and lifelong process that helps all students understand themselves, explore diverse career options, and develop the skills, experiences, and plans needed for future success. It integrates self-awareness, hands-on learning, and transferable skill development with strong community and industry partnerships, ensuring relevance and equity across contexts. Ultimately, career education is the learning all students need to understand themselves, explore their options, and map a pathway into the world of work whether their future takes them to university, college, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, or directly into the workforce.

Drawing upon the findings from the 2025 Career Education Professional Learning Needs Assessment, develop system education leadership professional learning to increase professional capacity to lead career education programming. Successful completion of this deliverable will include:

1. develop professional learning resources for system education leaders to enhance their understanding of current best practices in career education. (Webinar Series and Learning Guide Development – example)
2. share successful Alberta stories of practice, insights into off-campus education opportunities, examples of industry relationships, and administrative tools that align with best practices to support career education. (eLeadership Guide development related to developing community/industry/post-secondary partnerships to support career education)
3. connect school authorities to explore career pathway options and opportunities in urban and rural settings. (CASS Learning Lab development to include understanding tools for understanding labour market demands – example. Delivered at a future CASS conference.)
4. collaborate with The Consortium and Alberta Education on the development of the professional learning.

Pre-Qualification Criteria:

• Experience in system education leadership in K-12 education.
• Demonstrate relevant experience with anticipated deliverable.

Submission Format:

• Cover letter including contact information – address, email address, phone number, and a clear indication of the deliverable(s) the proposal addresses.
• Resume
• Brief outline on how the deliverables(s) could be developed towards completion, including anticipated timeline. The estimated timeline should be within 7 months for project completion.
• Three professional references

Submission Deadline:

• Interested contractors who meet the pre-qualification criteria are requested to email their proposal by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on December 2, 2025, to Dr. Gloria Antifaiff, Principal Leadership Consultant, at gloria.antifaiff@cass.ab.ca

Thank you in advance to all independent contractors for your interest in this opportunity, however only those with selected proposals will be contacted.