ONTARIO
Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program
PURPOSE: To increase the number of secondary students exploring the trades and set the groundwork for participants to successfully pursue careers in the trades, as well as to increase the number of students who graduate from secondary school.
MINISTRY
Ministries of Training, Colleges and Universities and Education, Government of Ontario
DESCRIPTION
The Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program is a school-to-work transition program offered through Ontario secondary schools. It allows full-time students in Grades 11 and 12 to gain training in an apprenticeship trade of interest to them as a potential career through cooperative education work placements in skilled trades.
To be eligible for the program, students must be enrolled full time in high school, taking co-op, successfully completed 16 credits and be 16 years of age.
Successful graduates of this program acquire their Ontario Secondary School Diploma as well as complete part of the on-the-job training requirements of an apprenticeship. They may also acquire accreditation from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for part of the in-school training component of the apprenticeship program in which they are registered (i.e. Apprenticeship Level 1 programs).
RESULTS
The program is currently active in every school board in Ontario. With the support of an Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program coordinator, over 25,000 high school students participated in the program by completing a co-op placement in an apprenticeable trade and over 1,400 participating apprentices attended Level 1 in-school apprenticeship training in 2012–13.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)
