Page 81 - Ontario Schools: Kindergarten to Grade 12

✦✦ Students will earn credits to meet diploma or certificate requirements while taking these programs.
✦✦ Programs will prepare students to proceed directly from high school to employment or self-employment.
✦✦ Programs will combine in-school and work-based education and training through job shadowing, work experience, and cooperative education, and will allow students to take further specialized training in order to gain additional certification.
✦✦ Programs will emphasize the acquisition of the Essential Skills and work habits outlined in the Ontario Skills Passport; these skills are to be developed in both the in-school and the out-of-school contexts. Students’ development of the Essential Skills and work habits will be tracked and documented using the Ontario Skills Passport.
✦✦ Programs must consist of an appropriate combination of courses that will prepare students to meet the requirements of a specific economic sector or an apprenticeship program.
✦✦ School boards must establish and coordinate partnerships with employers in order to provide students with appropriate work placements and to ensure that programs reflect actual workplace expectations.
✦✦ School-work transition programs and eligibility requirements must be described in school course calendars.
In communities where local work-based opportunities are limited, school boards should develop and implement strategies to make use of available technologies such as the Internet, e-mail, and audio and video conferencing in order to increase students’ access to relevant workplace experiences.
Website featuring “The Ontario Skills Passport”:
http://skills.edu.gov.on.ca
9.2 Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) Programs
Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) programs are ministry-approved, special- ized, career-focused programs that allow students to acquire technical knowledge and skills in specific economic sectors while meeting the requirements of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). Boards and schools may offer only the Specialist High Skills Major programs for which they have ministry approval. A school approved to offer an SHSM program must offer the program in all four pathways: apprenticeship training, college, university, and the workplace.
Part Two: Secondary Schools 79