Finding Occupational Profiles on ALIS
Supported and maintained by the Government of Alberta, the Alberta Learning and Information Service (ALIS) hosts several relevant career planning databases for salary information, where to complete related education and if an occupation requires licensing or certification, and Alberta specific occupational profiles on OCCInfo.OCCInfo has a "controlled vocabulary search". This means that if you are looking for more information about instructional designers, OCCInfo will suggest occupations for you:
But if you search for coder, OCCInfo suggests coding specialist but the occupations provided within this category aren't the conventional meaning of the word coder. In this case, try computer programmer.
If the results are not exactly what you are looking for, you can also look at the job titles in the Also Known As section of one of the suggested profiles, or scroll to the bottom of the profile to look at related profiles.
Like NOC, each of the profiles describes generalized job duties, education requirements and related occupations. Unlike NOC, the OCCInfo profiles are written for the Alberta labour market and include resources that are specific to this province, such as professional associations and educational institutions that offer training for a specific occupation.
I don't know what I what to do
You may be exploring options or don't have an idea of what the name is for the occupation that interests you, so you don't know what keywords to use to search for a profile. OCCInfo also has filtered searches that you can use without entering an occupation title in the search field. You don't have to use all of the filters to search for a profile; for example, you don't have to indicate the salary, outlook and subject to receive a result. If you want to search only by salary/hourly wage or by outlook, you can use the filtered search to find profiles.
Certifications in Alberta
When you select a profile, you may notice a small green banner under the title that says "Provincially regulated". This means that there may be a specific class, job title or the specific occupation that is regulated; in other words, you need a license, certification and/or membership in a professional organization to work in that field and use that job title to describe work.For example, nurses, engineers, and teachers are provincially regulated positions, but addiction counsellors, biochemists, and librarians are not.
If you have ever had someone tell you, or if you believe, that you need a degree in X to be an X, use the occupational profiles (for Alberta, if you plan to work in Alberta) to determine if you do need specific education, training, and certification to pursue that occupation. Employers may still ask that you have completed a specific program or have specific skills and experience to qualify for an interview, but the occupation is not regulated (at least in Alberta).