The guidance and career education program offers courses that are designed to help students develop learning and interpersonal skills, identify their educational and career interests, and explore postsecondary educational and work-related opportunities.

The Grade 11 course Designing Your Future (GWL3O) is a career-planning course that develops students’ abilities to identify and pursue appropriate postsecondary educational and employment opportunities.The Grade 11 course Leadership and Peer Support (GPP3O) focuses on the development of critical interpersonal skills and promotes student participation in both school and community life.The Grade 12 course Navigating the Workplace (GLN4O) helps students develop the workplace skills and work habits needed for success in all types of occupations.The Grade 12 course Advanced Learning Strategies (GLS4O) is designed to prepare students for success in their postsecondary destinations.This course can be modified to suit the needs of students who have an Individual Education Plan (IEP).The modified course is identified by the code GLE4O.The course may also be adapted for Grade 11 students who have an IEP; in this case, the course is identified by the code GLE3O.

The guidance and career education courses offered in Grades 11 and 12 address some of the fundamental issues and topics introduced in Grades 9 and 10 but explore those issues in greater depth and complexity.All guidance and career education courses encourage both communitybased learning and career exploration through a variety of community involvement activities, job shadowing, work experience, and internships or mentorships. In addition, guidance and career education courses are particularly well suited for inclusion in programs designed to provide pathways to apprenticeship or workplace destinations, including the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP), and in programs leading to a diploma with a Specialist High-Skills Major.

Guidance and career education courses may be taken before or concurrent with cooperative education courses, to provide an extended experiential learning opportunity in the workplace.1 Students are prepared for these workplace experiences through the development of job-readiness skills and instruction regarding workplace health and safety issues and procedures.

The courses offered in guidance and career education are “open” courses, which comprise one set of expectations for all students.The course type is defined as follows: 

Open courses are designed to prepare students for further study in the subject and to enrich their education generally.These courses comprise a set of expectations that are appropriate for all students.

Any of the Grade 11 and 12 guidance and career education courses may be used to fulfil the Group 1 additional compulsory credit requirement for the Ontario Secondary School Graduation diploma, as outlined in Policy/Program Memorandum No. 139,“Revisions to Ontario Secondary Schools (OSS) to Support Student Success and Learning to 18”, February 1, 2006. (The PPM also states that these courses may now be used as substitutions to meet compulsory credit requirements.)

Course image Career Studies, Grade 10, Open
Guidance and Career Education
Career Studies, Grade 10, Open

This course gives students the opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge, and habits that will support them in their education and career/life planning. Students will learn about global work trends, and seek opportunities within the school and community to expand and strengthen their transferable skills and their ability to adapt to the changing world of work. On the basis of exploration, reflective practice, and decision-making processes, students will make connections between their skills, interests, and values and their postsecondary options, whether in apprenticeship training, college, community living, university, or the workplace. They will set goals and create a plan for their first postsecondary year. As part of their preparation for the future, they will learn about personal financial management – including the variety of saving and borrowing tools available to them and how to use them to their advantage – and develop a budget for their first year after secondary school. 

Prerequisite: None