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Professional Linking Program

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Get certified as a teacher in B.C. while continuing to work in your paraprofessional role. The flexible Professional Linking Program (PLP) enables student support workers, education assistants, counselors and other paraprofessionals employed by the school district and working in K-12 classrooms to transition to a teaching career.

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Application Process

Next Start Date: January 2026
Delivery Method: In-person
Applications Open: July 1, 2025
大象传媒 Applications Close: September 15, 2025
PPS Supplemental Applications Close: October 1, 2025 at 4pm (PST)
Estimated Total Tuition: $13,000
Location: Burnaby, Surrey, and school placements

VIEW PLP FRENCH MODULE

View PLP Peace Region info

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

This program is ideal for:

We designed the PLP to provide B.C. working paraprofessional, para-educators, and people working on letters of permission in schools the opportunity to obtain certification as K-12 teachers in B.C.

Paraprofessionals and para-educators include:

  • Applied Behaviour Analyst (ABA) Support Workers
  • Child and Youth Care Workers
  • Education Assistants
  • Teachers working with letters of permissions
  • Independent School Educators
  • Indigenous Education or Support Workers
  • Settlement Workers
  • Speech Therapists
  • Student Support Workers

Program Structure

  • 16-month program consisting of 4 terms
  • Courses and practicum take place in the B.C. Lower Mainland
  • Courses are offered evenings, weekends with some online
  • Field experiences
  • Teaching practicum
  • Fulltime course load in the summer term
  • French Module: a bilingual module taught mainly in French, with some course material and seminars in English

Intake Schedule

The Professional Linking Program accepts applications on a biannual basis in both the Spring and Fall terms.

Next term intakes

Post Application

Program Design

The PLP is unique in that it enables you to get certified as a teacher in B.C., while continuing to work in your current role in the classroom. The only exceptions are the 6-week school experience in the second term and the 10-week practicum in the final term.

Graduates qualify for a B.C. Ministry of Education teaching certificate that enables you to teach K-12 in B.C. public schools. PLP students who enter the program with a first degree may be able to complete a Bachelor of Education (BEd) as a second degree without adding extra time or cost to the program.

CERTIFICATION

Professional Certificate (Non-Expiring)
Issued to PLP students who have completed a Bachelor's degree and all the required prerequisites.

Conditional Certificate (5-Year duration)
Issued to PLP students who are still working toward a degree but have completed the required minimum 90 units and all prerequisite courses. You must complete your Bachelor's degree within five years to continue teaching. Upon completion of a degree, the TRB will issue a Professional Certificate.

Program Goals

Goal 1: The development of a clear, coherent and justified view of education that:

  • Demonstrates understanding of the place of education as contributing to the creation of an open, pluralistic and caring society;
  • Articulates the content, methods and institutional arrangements that are relevant, worthwhile and appropriate for the education of children;
  • Speaks to a personal vision of what one can achieve as an educator;
  • Continually and consciously reshapes through experiences with a variety of learners in a range of socio-cultural contexts;
  • Is informed by understanding of the historical and contemporary legacies of imperialism and colonization on the education system of British Columbia;
  • Realizes the powerful, and sometimes negative, impact that our Eurocentric education system has had, and continues to have, upon students.

Goal 2: The development of a clear commitment to lifelong and lifewide learning that:

  • Manifests an openness to considering alternatives and possibilities;
  • Is rooted in the development of reflective capacities; inherent in various forms of inquiry;
  • Engages in the wide range of subject-based practices that inform the practice of teaching;
  • Is demonstrated in the ability to form and reform ideas, methods, techniques;
  • Upholds standards of excellence
  • Sets an example for students and stimulates them to be continuous learners.

Goal 3: The development of a clear commitment to uphold the principles of professional responsibility that:

  • Is sensitive to the positions of privilege, power, and trust in which teachers are placed;
  • Recognizes that teachers are role models who are rational, reliable, organized, responsible and responsive;
  • Demonstrates thoughtful and self-initiating behaviour that is reflective, positive in outlook, genuine, non-defensive and non-judgmental;
  • Demonstrates a reflective approach to personal well-being and the well-being of others;
  • Results in an increasing level of personal resilience.

Goal 4: The development of a clear commitment to maintain ethical and functional working relationships with all members of the educational community that:

  • Is open and responsive to feedback and constructive criticism;
  • Is demonstrated through significant, on-going dialogue and collaboration with colleagues, students, parents and others in the educational community;
  • Shows care and respect for every student;
  • Is authentic, transparent and honest;
  • Communicates openness to other worldviews, belief systems and points of view;
  • Reflects humility and consideration for others.

Goal 5: The development of knowledge about curricular content, educational theory and effective practice that:

  • Demonstrates the ability to communicate effectively in English or French;
  • Demonstrates the ability to understand and work with subject-specific content seen through Canadian, Indigenous and global lenses;
  • Sees opportunities for cross-curricular and cross-cultural connections;
  • Is cognizant of how individuals and groups of students learn;
  • Demonstrates the understanding and ability to create purposeful, contextually relevant lesson and unit plans;
  • Is aware of current, and varied, evaluation and assessment practices;
  • Is rooted in a strong sense of what is best for particular students in particular situations.

Goal 6: The development of the clear commitment to respect and celebrate students that:

  • Demonstrates respect and dignity for students as persons with varied interests, needs, backgrounds, points of view, plans, goals and aspirations;
  • Demonstrates care for students and their individual development;
  • Celebrates the diversity in our classrooms, schools and communities;
  • Demonstrates the understanding of how Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies create opportunities to meet the needs of all learners and students of Indigenous ancestry;
  • Demonstrates the ability to observe, understand and respond respectfully to all students: including students with special educational needs and students for whom English or French is an additional language;
  • Demonstrates the ability to observe, understand and respond respectfully to the diversities of all students.

Goal 7: The development of the ability to create a caring, cohesive community of learners that:

  • Places students at the centre of decision-making;
  • Communicates openness;
  • Demonstrates tolerance for uncertainty;
  • Celebrates and appreciates the spirit of inquiry;
  • Demonstrates the ability to be a thoughtful and sensitive observer of what goes on in the classroom;
  • Develops and nurtures a positive classroom community conducive to the learning and well-being for all students;
  • Encourages interpersonally sound working relationships among students.

Goal 8: The development of the ability to create opportunities for learning that:

  • Accesses and engages students' ability to think and learn through their minds, bodies, and hearts;
  • Are significant, relevant and matched to students鈥� intellectual, physical, social, emotional, aesthetic and vocational development;
  • Are responsive to students鈥� individual learning needs;
  • Are consistent with the BC Curriculum;
  • Utilizes relevant learning resources and technologies;
  • Are conducive to the development of critical thought processes;
  • Are sensitive to issues of social equity and cultural diversity;
  • Incorporates assessment as foundational in planning.

Goal 9: The development of the ability to blend theory and practice in well-organized ways that:

  • Relies on the ability to critically examine one鈥檚 own practices and experiences;
  • Includes the ability to recreate, re-invent, re-constitute or discard practices that have been tried and found to be ineffective to individual and/or group learning needs;
  • Motivates students to take ownership of their learning;
  • Cultivates a disposition towards inquiry in the classroom.

Goal 10: The development of ability to use assessment and evaluation practices in a thoughtful and ethical manner that:

  • Makes use of varied practices of assessment that are congruent with learning Goals;
  • Respects the dignity of each learner;
  • Acknowledges the personal, relational, social and cultural perspectives that frame evaluative commentary on student growth and development;
  • Demonstrates the understanding that assessment, in its many guises, is foundational to effective and powerful learning.

COURSES

PLP has four terms that are structured to accommodate busy working schedules.

Fall Term 2025 (September) Intake

TERM 1 (Sept - Dec): EDUC 402 and EDUC 407

EDUC 402W - STUDIES OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE (7 units)

Begin the study of the literature of education and examine educational issues. Campus-based seminars will introduce theory, concepts and methodologies relevant to teacher development. You may also attend curriculum workshops to become more familiar with a vast array of educational resources. During the first term, the goal is to make meaning of the vast and complex world of educational practice, and have this meaning informed by the extensive study of the literature and by thoughtful, reflective discourse.

Classes are held on Wednesdays 4:30 - 8:30 pm and Saturdays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm.

EDUC 407 鈥� PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: DEVELOPING A SOLID FOUNDATION (3 UNITS)

Students explore the use of first-person narratives and reflections on lived experiences.  This course aims to develop a strong foundation of knowledge and understanding of the history of Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education. EDUC 407 involves the beginnings of a Professional Growth Portfolio which highlights student learning and goals for future consideration.

TERM 2 (JAN - APR): EDUC 403 and EDUC 408
*This term includes a 6-week school experience

EDUC 403 - STUDIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING (14 UNITS)

Engage in school observation and practice teaching opportunities that build on the theoretical foundations explored in the first term. You will connect your previous knowledge and experience as a paraprofessional with seminar concepts and practicum activities. Develop dispositional capacities and engage in comparative studies of teaching/learning between students' current roles and their future roles as teachers. The course aims to enhance existing knowledge about pedagogical practices through reflective practice and community learning models and integrates this with the broader competencies of a teacher. Campus-based classes are held on weekends. There is also a six-week period of continuous practice teaching this term. It is your responsibility to arrange for time off from your employment to attend to the practice teaching requirement. You must be prepared to travel up to 90 kms to attend your school placement.

Classes are held Saturdays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm and Wednesday evenings (there will be no Wednesday evening classes during the six-week practice teaching placement).

EDUC 408 - PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: BUILDING A FRAMEWORK FOR CURRENT PRACTICES (3 UNITS)

Includes explorations of current practices in school contexts in relation to Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education. Students will build upon the portfolio started in EDUC 407 to include new learnings and goals for future consideration in the context of curriculum and schools.

TERM 3 (May - Aug): EDUC 404  

EDUC 404 - PROFESSIONAL COURSEWORK (15 UNITS)

All PLP student teachers must take a minimum of 15 units of upper-division Education courses to complete the Professional Coursework requirements for certification.

Bachelor of Education (BEd) as a second degree: With careful course and minor selection, you can also complete a Bachelor of Education (BEd) as a second degree without adding any extra time or cost to the program. An Advisor will provide more information on this option during the second term of the program.

Full-time studies.

TERM 4 (Sept - Dec): EDUC 405 and EDUC 409

EDUC 405 鈥� TEACHING PRACTICUM (15 UNITS)

You will be assigned to a classroom for 10鈥�12 weeks of student teaching experience. During this term, the school associate and faculty associate provide help and guidance, as well as make assessments of your growth toward the achievement of standards of professional competence. You must arrange with your districts for a full-time leave of absence for this entire practicum. You will be placed by the placement coordinator in local schools in the Lower Mainland or Fraser Valley. You must be prepared to travel up to 90 kms to attend your school placement.

Full-time teaching practicum.

EDUC 409: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: CAPSTONE PROJECT (3 UNITS)

Includes the collection of evidence of the integration of Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education within the student teacher鈥檚 practice during their certifying practicum. This evidence informs the Capstone Portfolio Project, which highlights learning and growth throughout the PLP and sets goals for the future, thus providing a bridge from the role of a student teacher to a beginning teacher.

Spring Term 2026 (January) Intake

TERM 1 (Jan - Apr): EDUC 402W and EDUC 407

EDUC 402W 鈥� STUDIES OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE (7 UNITS)

Begin the study of the literature of education and examine educational issues. Campus-based seminars will introduce theory, concepts and methodologies relevant to teacher development. You may also attend curriculum workshops to become more familiar with a vast array of educational resources. During the first term, the goal is to make meaning of the vast and complex world of educational practice, and have this meaning informed by the extensive study of the literature and by thoughtful, reflective discourse.

Classes are held on Wednesdays 4:30 - 8:30 pm and Saturdays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm.

EDUC 407 鈥� PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: DEVELOPING A SOLID FOUNDATION (3 UNITS)

Students explore the use of first-person narratives and reflections on lived experiences. This course aims to develop a strong foundation of knowledge and understanding of the history of Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education. EDUC 407 involves the beginnings of a Professional Growth Portfolio which highlights student learning and goals for future consideration.

TERM 2 (MAY - AUG): EDUC 404

EDUC 404 - PROFESSIONAL COURSEWORK (15 UNITS)

All PLP student teachers must take a minimum of 15 units of upper-division Education courses to complete the Professional Coursework requirements for certification.

With careful course and minor selection, you can also complete a Bachelor of Education (BEd) as a second degree without adding any extra time or cost to the program. An Advisor will provide more information on this option during the first term of the program.

Full-time studies.

French Module: if you are part of the French Module, it is strongly recommended that you complete the Minor in French Education to prepare yourself adequately for the reality of the French classroom, but also to help you succeed in your long teaching practicum which will take place the following semester. You can also have access to additional bursaries.

TERM 3 (SEPT - DEC): EDUC 403 and EDUC 408

EDUC 403 - STUDIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING (14 UNITS)

Engage in school observation and practice teaching opportunities that build on the theoretical foundations explored in the first term. You will connect your previous knowledge and experience as a paraprofessional with seminar concepts and practicum activities. Develop dispositional capacities and engage in comparative studies of teaching/learning between students' current roles and their future roles as teachers. The course aims to enhance existing knowledge about pedagogical practices through reflective practice and community learning models and integrates this with the broader competencies of a teacher. Campus-based classes are held on weekends. There is also a six-week period of continuous practice teaching this term. It is your responsibility to arrange for time off from your employment to attend to the practice teaching requirement. You must be prepared to travel up to 90 kms to attend your school placement.

Classes are held Saturdays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm and Wednesday evenings (there will be no Wednesday evening classes during the six-week practice teaching placement).

EDUC 408 - PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: BUILDING A FRAMEWORK FOR CURRENT PRACTICES (3 UNITS)

Includes explorations of current practices in school contexts in relation to Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education. Students will build upon the portfolio started in EDUC 407 to include new learnings and goals for future consideration in the context of curriculum and schools.

TERM 4 (JAN 鈥� APR): EDUC 405 and EDUC 409

EDUC 405 鈥� TEACHING PRACTICUM (15 UNITS)

You will be assigned to a classroom for 10鈥�12 weeks of student teaching experience. During this term, the school associate and faculty associate provide help and guidance, as well as make assessments of your growth toward the achievement of standards of professional competence. You must arrange with your districts for a full-time leave of absence for this entire practicum. You will be placed by the placement coordinator in local schools in the Lower Mainland or Fraser Valley. You must be prepared to travel up to 90 kms to attend your school placement.

Full-time teaching practicum.

EDUC 409: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PORTFOLIO: CAPSTONE PROJECT (3 UNITS)

Includes the collection of evidence of the integration of Indigenous Education, Inclusive Education, and Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression Education within the student teacher鈥檚 practice during their certifying practicum. This evidence informs the Capstone Portfolio Project, which highlights learning and growth throughout the PLP and sets goals for the future, thus providing a bridge from the role of a student teacher to a beginning teacher.

Disclosure Notice

Pursuant to the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RSBC 1996, c. 165), by enrolling in this program you consent to 大象传媒 disclosing and storing your personal information, as necessary. You further acknowledge and understand that your personal information (which includes your name, the K鈥�12 subject area in which you have been accepted into the Faculty of Education to teach, your 大象传媒 email address, and in specific cases 大象传媒 Student Number) may be disclosed to the following organizations:

  • School Districts throughout the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, northern British Columbia, and Squamish (and other districts, as necessary).The above-noted personal information is disclosed to these districts in order to facilitate the placement of student teachers in practicum or other school-based experiences with school-based mentors (School Associates) and Faculty Associates.

The above listed information may be used and/or disclosed for the purposes of supporting the placement of a student teacher in a K鈥�12 classroom with a School Associate for a practicum or other school-based experience, and to support the ongoing educational oversight and supervision of the student teacher during the course of their placement.

If you have any questions about the disclosure of this information, please contact the Manager, Pre-Service Professional Studies at edppsmgr@sfu.ca.

SCHOOL PLACEMENTS

Students will receive in-school experience, working closely with a school associate to observe classrooms and to guide and assess the student teacher's growth and acheivement in professional competence. Placements take place throughout the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, and Peace Region. Students must be located in these regions for the practicum placement.

VOICES OF THE PROGRAM

INSTRUCTIONAL TEAM

Like our other teacher education programs, the PLP uses a unique staffing model that teams 大象传媒's world-class researchers (faculty members) with highly skilled seconded teachers (faculty associates) and practicing K-12 teachers (school associates) as teacher educators. Meet our Faculty Associates.

UPCOMING INFORMATION SESSIONS

Register for a Professional Linking Program (PLP) information session. Hosted by the 大象传媒s team, you will learn about:

  • History and structure of the program
  • Different program options
  • 大象传媒 requirements, including prerequisites
  • Application process and deadlines

  • Program options 鈥� French Module*

View all information sessions

*Considering teaching French or in French? Register for a  information session to learn more about the program and the possibility to become a teacher in Core French, French Immersion, or Francophone program in British Columbia.

NOTE: It is strongly recommended you attend an information session organized by the PPS 大象传媒s office before attending the PLP 鈥� French Module information session.

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about our programs not covered on our website, contact our admissions team.

Email: pps_admissions@sfu.ca
To prevent missing emails from us, add pps_admissions@sfu.ca to your contact list if you are not using an 大象传媒 email account.
Phone: 778-782-3559

For questions relating to DELF-DALF certification, bursaries, and awards for studies in French, language support and student life in French, please contact 大象传媒's Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs. Service available in French and English.

Email: educprog@sfu.ca
Phone: 778-782-7646

NOTE: All communication and interactions with the PPS 大象传媒s office and Faculty of Education are considered part of the admissions process and are taken into account when considering applicants for admission. 大象传媒 may be denied to applicants who communicate in an unprofessional manner or who act in an inappropriate manner during the admissions process.

Virtual Hours

Get help with your application and connect with a member of the admissions team during our virtual drop-in hours: Monday (starting September 8, 2025) and Wednesdays from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (PST).** 

Meet on Zoom:

Meeting ID: 660 0788 5834
Password: 833520
Regular Schedule: Monday (starting September 8, 2025) and Wednesday, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (PST)

**Regularly scheduled time slot subject to change or cancellation without notice

NOTE: Virtual Hours will be unavailable August 27. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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