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THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12: GUIDANCE AND CAREER EDUCATION
The Ministry of Education has facilitated the development of materials to support literacy instruction across the curriculum. Helpful advice for integrating literacy instruction in guidance and career education courses may be found in the following resource documents:
• ThinkLiteracy:Cross-CurricularApproaches,Grades7–12,2003
• ThinkLiteracy:Cross-CurricularApproaches,Grades7–12–GuidanceandCareerEducation:
Subject-Specific Examples (Learning Strategies, Grade 9; Career Studies, Grade 10), 2006
The guidance and career education curriculum also builds on and reinforces certain aspects
of the mathematics curriculum. For example, clear, concise communication involves the use of various diagrams, charts, tables, and graphs to organize, interpret, and present information. In courses that include planning for future financial needs, students apply concepts related to budgeting and personal finance. Statistical information is used in some courses to help students understand trends in society and the economy.
In all guidance and career education courses, students will develop their ability to ask questions and to plan investigations to answer those questions.They need to learn a variety of research methods in order to carry out their investigations and to know which methods to use in a particular inquiry. Students need to learn how to locate relevant information from a variety of sources, such as books, newspapers, field studies and interviews, diagrams and charts, and electronic sources.As they advance through the grades,students will be expected to use these sources with increasing sophistication.
The Ontario Skills Passport and Essential Skills
Teachers planning programs in guidance and career education need to be aware of the purpose and benefits of the Ontario Skills Passport (OSP).The OSP is a bilingual web-based resource that enhances the relevancy of classroom learning for students and strengthens school-work connections.The OSP provides clear descriptions of essential skills such as reading, writing, computer use, measurement and calculation, and problem solving and includes an extensive database of occupation-specific workplace tasks that illustrate how workers use these skills on the job.The essential skills are transferable, in that they are used in virtually all occupations. The OSP also includes descriptions of important work habits, such as working safely, being reliable, and providing excellent customer service.The OSP is designed to help employers assess and record students’ demonstration of these skills and work habits during their coopera- tive education placements. Students can use the OSP to identify the skills and work habits they already have, plan further skill development, and show employers what they can do.
The skills described in the OSP are the essential skills that the Government of Canada and other national and international agencies have identified and validated, through extensive research, as the skills needed for work, learning, and life. Essential skills provide the foundation for learning all other skills and enable people to evolve with their jobs and adapt to workplace change. For further information on the OSP and essential skills, visit http://skills.edu.gov.on.ca.