This guide is for school and school board staff who are planning and delivering SHSM programs.

Overview

Each SHSM requires students to complete of a bundle of 8 to 10 Grade 11 and Grade 12 credits. The bundle consists of:

The credits in the bundle provide students with knowledge and skills particular to, and valued by, their chosen SHSM sector. The bundle for each SHSM varies depending on:

  • the SHSM program’s economic sector
  • the student's chosen pathway to 1 of 4 postsecondary destinations – apprenticeship training, college, university, or the workplace – within each SHSM

We must approve the credits in each of your SHSM bundles.

Major credits

Each SHSM includes 4 major credits, with any combination of Grade 11 and Grade 12 credits. Major credits let students build a foundation of sector-focused knowledge and skills before they reach a postsecondary destination.

School boards can nominate courses for use as major credits in the SHSM they wish to offer.

We maintain a master list of eligible major credit courses for each sector, which we send to all school boards each year.

Major credits are specific to the destination and may be:

  • Ontario curriculum credits
  • ministry-approved locally developed credits (LDCs)
  • ministry-approved dual credits

Up to 3 major credits may be cooperative education credits related to the sector.

Note: These credits would be additional to the 2 required cooperative education credits in the bundle.

Opportunities for further specialization

Your SHSM can focus on a specific area within its economic sector through the composition of its 4 major credits. Depending on local circumstances, your school board may offer variants of an SHSM in the same sector. Each variant would have a particular area of focus and a different mix of 4 major credits.

For example, the SHSM–Business can focus on a variety of areas including entrepreneurship, marketing or accounting.

If your SHSM has a choice of focus areas, students must select one.

Other required credits

In addition to the 4 major credits, an SHSM student must complete 2 to 4 other credits from the Ontario curriculum as required for their chosen sector. These courses can include English, mathematics and science.

Contextualized learning activities

You may use contextualized learning activities (CLAs) to help deliver these courses. A CLA is a teacher-led, in-class activity tailored to a student’s particular SHSM sector. It has between 6 hours and 10 hours of learning, based on the knowledge and skills outlined in the course’s relevant curriculum expectations. 

CLAs let teachers meet one or more curriculum expectations using content specific to a particular SHSM sector.

CLA delivery

CLAs can be delivered to:

  • an entire class, some of whose members are SHSM students (recommended)
  • an entire class, all of whose members are SHSM students
  • an individual or a small group of SHSM students within an existing class
  • individual SHSM students, through e-learning or independent study

How CLAs benefit students

CLAs can help students by:

  • making the course content authentic and relevant
  • connecting their required course learning to their SHSM sector

Tips for teachers of other required credits

Before developing and delivering a CLA:

  • get familiar with the sector-specific knowledge and skills of the SHSM major credits
  • gain insight into the relationship between your subject and the SHSM sector

Sample practice: For a Construction SHSM, the math teacher might visit the home building site for the construction course to observe how mathematical principles are applied in the calculation of the rise, run and length of roof rafters.

Note: Your school now has the option to decide if you will offer CLAs. Your school team, together with your school board lead, can decide whether to formally include CLAs in your SHSM program(s).

Cooperative education (co-op) credits

Co-op gives SHSM students opportunities to apply, refine and extend the skills and knowledge outlined in the co-op curriculum. This learning includes a placement in a community outside of school. The co-op curriculum focuses on skills, knowledge and habits of mind that will:

  • support students in their education and career/life planning
  • protect and promote their health, safety and well-being

Co-op also provides real learning experiences in the student's SHSM sector. These real-life experiences let the student observe (and often apply and practise) some of the sector-specific knowledge and skills that they gained in their SHSM’s bundle of credits.

The co-op placement must be in the economic sector related to the student's SHSM program to qualify for the bundle of credits.

SHSM Requirements

Students must earn at least 2 co-op credits in their SHSM's economic sector.

Course choices

Any co-op credit related to the sector will qualify for the co-op requirement, however there is a preferred order. Encourage students enrolled in an SHSM program to select their co-op courses as in this order.

  1. Cooperative education linked to a related course (or courses) where the related course is specific to the student’s SHSM program:
    • 1 or more of the major credit courses (preferred)
    • 1 of the other required credit courses
  2. Creating opportunities through co-op (DCO3O)
  3. Cooperative education linked to a related course (or courses) where the related course is Career Studies (GLC2O) or Civics and Citizenship (CHV2O). These courses must have been approved as a related course to meet the co-op requirement for the SHSM program.

French Immersion

Students enrolled in or who have completed the Grade 12 French Immersion course (FIF4O or FIF4U) may use this course as the related course for the co-op credits for an SHSM in any sector. They may only do this if their placement has a French-language component and is relevant to the sector.

Students with postsecondary destinations

Encourage SHSM students with a university or college destination to complete their co-op credits before Grade 12. This is so that in Grade 12 they can focus on completing the credits they need for admission to the postsecondary program of their choice.

Additional co-op credits

Although students must earn 2 co-op credits, they can take more than the required 2 credits.

Students may take up to 4 additional co-op credits in the SHSM program for a total of 6 co-op credits. Of the additional 4:

The co-op work placement must be in the student's SHSM program economic sector.

Depending on local circumstances, students may complete their co-op credits:

  • through continuing education after school
  • at night school
  • in the summer
  • through virtual co-op education

Learn more in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Cooperative Education, 2018.