Last fall, Lynn Lievers was both excited and relieved when her son Stran told her he could take a driver education course at school. A Grade 10 student at Matthew Halton High School in Pincher Creek, Stran was in the right age group to take AMA’s Class 5 New Driver program, which the school was offering in 2025 as part of its annual Experiential Learning Week.
Once a year, the school suspends regular classes for a week and offers students alternative classes on subjects such as cooking, pet care, mechanics, and now driver education. With Grade 9 and 10 students getting to select classes based on their interests, the roster for driver ed proved popular. The class filled up quickly and the school had to cap it at 25 participants.
Over the course of the week, teachers delivered AMA’s online course of knowledge-theory lessons, assignments and videos. Kevin Sheen, a teacher at Matthew Halton High School, says the kids were engaged the whole week. “They were really focused on getting through the course and finishing the course,” he says.
AMA piloted the Driver Ed: School Edition program at McNally High School in Edmonton in the fall of 2023. Since then, other schools across Alberta, including Stran’s, have joined the program and integrated it into curriculum areas such as summer school or Career and Life Management.
There was such positive feedback from parents and students at Matthew Halton High that the school is already looking at how to incorporate the learner’s licence course into the Grade 9 curriculum, so all students have the opportunity to learn safe driving skills.
After completing and passing the classroom portion of the course, students at Matthew Halton High School had the option to add in-vehicle driving lessons in Lethbridge, the closest town with an AMA centre, with an AMA driving instructor. Stran signed up right away.
Stran’s mother, Lynn, says going to Lethbridge was helpful — and a very different driving experience, since Pincher Creek only has one stoplight. The driving sessions were a big confidence booster for both Lynn and Stran. He adds that the knowledge portion that he learned at his school made the driving part a lot easier.
During each two-hour session, the instructor guided Stran through the skills required to be a safe, confident driver, noting where he was doing well and areas where there was room for improvement. Lynn says that within an hour of the session ending, the instructor would email her a report card-style score sheet that broke down how her son was doing. This gave the duo the chance to practice in the weeks between driving sessions.
“I absolutely love that they’re doing this in the school,” says Lynn. The fee was reduced for students taking the course through their school — and Lynn says, it was “absolutely worth it.”
Driver ed programs aren’t mandatory in Alberta, but Lynn emphatically recommends it. “What’s more important to teenagers than learning how to drive? And what’s more important to society than having them do it safely?” Stran feels the same. “I can definitely tell, driving around with my friends, who took the course or not. It makes me a better driver to know all the rules,” he adds.
~ A version of this story originally appeared in the Fall 2025 edition of the AMA Insider magazine.