Professional Certification
Regulatory Amendments - October 24, 2024 (M.R. 109/2024)
Following commitments addressed in the Action Plan and consultations with the sector, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning amended the Teaching Certificates and Qualifications Regulation M.R. 115/2015 effective October 24, 2024.
The amendments are as follows:
- Align Content Requirements with Other Canadian Jurisdictions
- Prior to this amendment, Manitoba was more stringent than most Canadian jurisdictions regarding specific credit requirements for teacher certification, particularly in major and minor teachables for early/middle and senior years, and breadth requirements for early/middle years. This created barriers for recruitment of teachers and entry from undergraduate degree programs into after-degree teacher education programs in the province.
- Effective immediately, this amendment remove all previous requirements for major and minor teachables and breadth requirements in both streams, effectively resulting in the removal of the early/middle and senior years streams.
- The changes will remove barriers to teachers being certified and will help Manitoba recruit teachers, particularly internationally educated teachers (IETs). Removing these impediments to admission in the Bachelor or Education programs will help to ensure seats are filled at post-secondary institutes. The changes will also have coursework focused more on teaching pedagogy and methods rather than curriculum specifics.
* Applicants seeking revaluation for eligibility for teacher certification as a result of amendment 1 as listed above must complete the Application to Change Certification Status and submit all required documents.
- Extension of Validity Period for Background Checks from three to six months
- Prior to this amendment, Manitoba required that a satisfactory background check completed within the past three months be sent to the certification body at the time of application, including child abuse registry checks, criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks.
- Effective immediately, this requirement is extended from three to six months in consonance with other Canadian jurisdictions, reduces administrative burden, enhances inclusion of rural and northern teaching applicants, and does not compromise student and public safety.
- Training on Sexual Abuse Prevention as a Certification Requirement
- Since May 2022, a Ministerial directive has required all school staff to complete a mandatory training course on sexual abuse prevention (“Respect in School” from the Respect Group or, alternatively, “Commit to Kids” from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection).
- Effective November 12, 2024, this amendment will require this training to be completed by teaching and clinician candidates prior to certification to help ensure that all certified teachers and clinicians have this training prior to being employed in Manitoba schools.
- Authority to allow for Language Proficiency Tests
- Manitoba is the only Canadian jurisdiction that had no legislated authority to establish a language proficiency test as a certification requirement.
- The amendment will establish proficiency in English or French as a certification requirement.
- In June 2022, Manitoba entered into an agreement for a federal initiative led by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) that aims to implement a Pan-Canadian Qualification Assessment Centre, also known by “Pathways to Teach Canada”. This initiative will provide several services to IETs including an online platform for proctored language-competency assessments that are specific to the teaching profession called Language Competency Assessment for the Teaching Profession (LCATP).
- Once implemented, LCATP will be the only approved language proficiency test accepted by the province.
- Such tests would only apply to IETs who did not graduate from an English or French based teacher education program.
- Teaching applicants with an English or French degree from a teacher education program automatically satisfy the criteria for language proficiency.
- Update language: “Special” to “Inclusive” Education
- Effective immediately, this amendment will update the regulated language to current terminology, in alignment with “Manitoba’s Philosophy of Inclusion and Inclusive Schools” policy and recommendation 33 of the Report of the Commission on K-12 Education.
- This amendment will not affect regulatory requirements for inclusive education teaching or inclusive education coordinator certificates.
- Update language: Specialist Certificates
- Effective immediately, this amendment will update the regulated language to current terminology, in alignment with the recently launched Manitoba School Leadership Framework (February 2024).
- This amendment will not affect regulatory requirements for school leadership certificates.
- School Clinicians: Recognition of Experience prior to Certification
- Although the regulation separately describes the required qualifications for teachers and clinicians’ certificates, the regulated criteria for recognition of experience is teacher based, requiring the department to establish policies to adapt the regulatory language to clinician’s circumstances.
- Effective immediately, to enhance transparency and accountability, this amendment will enshrine in regulation policy established by the department to assess clinicians’ experience prior to certification.
- This amendment will provide more clarity for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, school psychologists and social workers regarding how their previous professional experience may be recognized if they choose to pursue a school clinician career.
- School Clinicians: Salary Classification Schedule
- Similar to the previous issue of recognizing clinician experience, the salary classification schedule in the regulation is based on teacher education programs and degrees, also requiring the department to establish policies to adapt the regulatory language to clinicians’ unique education pathways.
- Effective immediately, this amendment creates a new salary classification schedule that is specific to each of the seven types of clinicians, describing the desired academic qualifications for each type of clinician separately, following the policies developed by the department for this purpose.
- This will provide more clarity for school clinicians regarding how their academic qualifications may influence their salary classification. Further, no clinician will see their classification lowered as a result of a new classification schedule.
- Clarify the Limits on Recognizing Experience Between the Completion of Academic Coursework and the Certification for Teachers and Clinicians
- Manitoba has a long-standing provision in regulation that allows for the accrual of professional experience between the completion of academic coursework and the issuance of a teaching certificate, to accommodate the period between the hiring of new graduates by schools and the conferral of the degree by post-secondary institutions in the province. The intention was to allow new graduates the opportunity to work and acquire recognized teaching experience for up to sixty days while waiting for conferral of their degree (normally May-June of a year), and simultaneously encourages timely completion of the formal certification process.
- Although the original intent of this provision was to accommodate a period of a couple of months, its current language has no prescribed time limit. Effective immediately, this amendment will establish a 60-day maximum accrual of experience prior to certification to align with its original intent of this amendment.
Applicants seeking revaluation of recognition of teaching experience or School Clinician experience as a result of the regulatory amendments must complete the Request for Re-evaluation of Teaching Experience (
680 KB).
