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Cooperative Education

Cooperative Education is a program that allows students to earn secondary school credits while completing a work placement in the community. A student's co-op program consists of the co-op course, which is monitored by a cooperative education teacher, and a related curriculum course or courses. Every student in a co-op program must have a Personalized Placement Learning Plan (PPLP) which shows how the student's related curriculum course or courses are being applied at their co-op placement. While at the placement, a designated workplace supervisor acts as a mentor for the co-op student, oversees their experiential learning, and communicates regularly with the co-op teacher.

The Cooperative Education course consists of a classroom component and a placement component. The classroom component includes pre-placement and integration activities, which prepare students for the workplace. Students receive instruction in areas of key importance such as workplace health and safety and workplace ethics, and in-school integration sessions provide opportunities for students to reflect on and reinforce their learning in the workplace.

Cooperative Education allows students to participate in valuable learning experiences that help prepare them for the next stage of their lives, whether in apprenticeship training, college, community living, university or the workplace.

Students must apply for the program during course selection time. Co-op placements are arranged for students by their school. Co-op placements must follow Ministry of Education policy and guidelines.

How does Cooperative Education benefit students?

Cooperative Education gives students the opportunity to:

Make connections between school and work and to "try out" a career of interest;
See the relevance of their classroom learning in a work setting;
Develop the essential skills and work habits required in the workplace and acquire a direct understanding of employer and workplace expectations; and
Experience authentic and purposeful learning outside a traditional classroom setting.

How does Cooperative Education help students meet diploma requirements?

Cooperative Education credits may be used to meet up to 2 of the 18 compulsory credit requirements for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

Students must also earn 12 optional credits for the OSSD. There is no limit to the number of optional courses that might be earned through Cooperative Education courses.

Under the ministry-approved framework for the new Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) designation within the OSSD, students must earn a minimum of two Cooperative Education credits as one of the required components of the SHSM.
Cooperative Education is also a required component of other specialized programs, such as school-to-work and school-to-apprenticeship (OYAP) programs.