Thousands of Albertans are being forced to postpone or cancel their education and training because they are unable to gain access to a post-secondary institution, says the head of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).

"This means thousands of potential skilled workers are denied to industry," SAIT president Irene Lewis said in a recent speech at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Lewis said the school has had to turn away 11,700 qualified applicants in the last two years. It's a trend that could slow Alberta's bursting economy, she noted.

"SAIT's classrooms and labs are full; thousands of qualified students are turned away for a lack of space while every industry sector tells us they need skilled graduates," she said.

"There is an economically crippling irony in this picture: Employers calling for more skilled labour while thousands who want careers in Alberta industries are denied access to training," she added.

It's a similar story at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), because for each one of the 11,000 full-time students enrolled in the technical college, "we turn away 2.5 to 2.6 qualified applicants," said NAIT president Sam Shaw.

He added, however, that there aren't necessarily jobs for all applicants; the radio and television arts program, for example, turns away many potential students because the broadcast industry is unable to absorb so many graduates.

Still, on the trades and technical side, Alberta has a voracious appetite.

What's at stake, say both Shaw and Lewis, is the future of billions of dollars worth of megaprojects - most of which are oilsands projects in northern Alberta. They hope the Alberta government is receiving the message and will address the problem.

"Clearly funding is a component of it, but we need to ... ensure that we're in step with business and industry," Shaw said.

The Alberta government said it has increased funding to the province's post-secondary institutions in recent years. Last year the province announced ongoing support to post-secondary institutions would increase by $85 million to more than $1.2 billion in 2004-05, and to nearly $1.3 billion by 2006-07.

Funding for scholarships, bursaries and grants, meanwhile, was expected to increase by $6.2 million to $63 million in 2004-05.

Nevertheless, Lewis noted that SAIT has experienced funding reductions in recent years. While she stopped short of laying the blame on the province's doorstep, she said improving access to Alberta's publicly funded learning must be made a priority.

Shaw and Lewis are not alone in their concerns. The Calgary-based Canada West Foundation, in a report released last year, said the problem of skills shortages "seems to be intimately tied to the state of post-secondary education in the West."

In its survey of dozens of Western Canadian industry associations, the foundation found that although post-secondary training programs are in place for many of the occupations experiencing shortages, several deficiencies exist.

"These deficiencies include too few educational placements for students, a lack of adequate training equipment/financial resources at post-secondary institutions, differential provincial recognition standards and the quality of the education received being insufficient for employment in the industry," the foundation said in a news release.

The report concluded that more must be done to co-ordinate the private sector and governments regarding the training and hiring of workers.

In her speech, Lewis noted that Imperial Oil Ltd. is considering scrapping the heavy-oil upgrader for its Kearl Lake oilsands project - expected to produce 300,000 barrels of oil a day in 2008 - because of soaring construction costs, and lack of skilled labour and project managers for megaprojects.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said this past fall that it expects to employ 6,500 workers on its Horizon oilsands venture. To handle the extra demand, oilsands players are lobbying the federal government to ease restrictions on bringing in foreign workers.

But importing labour is a "stop-gap" solution that fails to address long-term problems, Lewis said.

"While this provides some short-term economic relief, it does not provide long-term economic stability - which industry requires - nor does it address our long-term social issues."

Shaw said he believes that revising Canada's immigration policies could have a positive effect on Alberta's labour scene.

"Right now 80 per cent of the immigrants coming to Canada have degrees. However, they are not the kinds of degrees we need in our workforce so there's a disconnect between the skills coming in and skillsets that we need."

The NAIT president also noted the importance of working with the First Nations community to create access and develop new strategies to allow them to participate.

"We must look at the aboriginal population and get them engaged in similar kinds of skill-sets - math, technical and science - and also have employers work alongside to ensure we have the kind of employment opportunities for our aboriginal youth," he said.

Meanwhile, Calgary's five publicly funded post-secondary schools have banded together to create Campus Calgary, a partnership designed to work with government to increase openness and seamlessness of post-secondary access.

The memorandum of understanding commits the five organizations to work toward providing an additional 19,000 spaces by 2010.