Intermediate First Aid: What the SHSM Guide Requires
All 19 sector pages in the Ministry’s SHSM Guide list Intermediate First Aid as a compulsory certification. It is the course Ontario schools have booked for years under the name Standard First Aid. The province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board renamed the certificate on June 22, 2026, and the Guide’s sector pages, all updated August 28, 2026, carry the new name (Guide: Sectors). The requirements quoted below sit on Guide: Certification and training experiences, updated October 20, 2025.
This digest covers what the Guide requires of a first aid certification, and which sectors list it and alongside what. It then covers where the new name came from, and what happens to a certificate a student already holds. For the four ways a certification may be delivered, see the Guide’s delivery models. For the rest of the Guide by task, see the Guide in 15 minutes. For the certifications as a set, start with the certifications and ICE training guide.
What the Guide requires of a first aid certification
Two sentences bind every school (Guide: Certification and training experiences, Requirements):
“The certifications and training courses must be specific to each SHSM sector. You may not: substitute other programs for the certifications and training courses listed for each SHSM sector in this guide; reduce the required number of certifications and training courses.”
A sector that lists Intermediate First Aid cannot be given the shorter Basic First Aid instead, and cannot drop the line. The delivery criteria then add the trainer test (Guide: Certification and training experiences, Delivery criteria):
“Certifications and training courses must be delivered by a certified trainer. This is someone recognized as an authority by the certification provider or by the sector.”
The only exemption named in that section is WHMIS: “the requirement for a certified trainer does not apply to the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)”. By the Guide’s own criteria, first aid is not exempt, so whoever runs the day has to be recognized by the certification provider or by the sector. The two types of WHMIS training covers that exemption, and the delivery models covers who may run the day.
The sector pages name the certification and stop there. No issuing authority, no hours, no validity period, no standard (Guide: Health and wellness). Everything below about length and expiry comes from the issuing authorities, not from the Guide.
Which sectors list Intermediate First Aid as compulsory
Each sector page states its own counts in a single sentence, for example (Guide: Business):
“Students must complete 4 compulsory and 2 elective certifications and/or training courses/programs that are recognized by the business sector.”
Two entries repeat on every page, so the table shortens them. On 17 sector pages the CPR entry reads “Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Level C”, followed by “includes automated external defibrillation (AED)” (Guide: Agriculture, Compulsory certifications and training). On Guide: Health and wellness and on Guide: Justice, community safety and emergency services it instead reads “Level C or Health Care Provider (HCP)”, with both including AED. The WHMIS entry is identical on all 19 pages: “Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)”, followed by “generic, not site-specific, instruction”. Every other entry is the Guide’s own wording, with its dashes rendered as commas or a hyphen. Each sector name in the table links to the page its row was read from, all of them updated August 28, 2026.
| Sector | Compulsory certifications, in the Guide’s order | Intermediate First Aid | Compulsory count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Arts and culture | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Aviation and aerospace | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Business | CPR Level C; Customer Service; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Construction | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS; working at heights; Health and safety - basic | yes | 5 |
| Energy | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Environment | CPR Level C; compass/map/global positioning system (GPS); Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Food processing | CPR Level C; Food Safety Level 1; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Forestry | CPR Level C; compass/map/global positioning system (GPS); Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Health and wellness | CPR Level C or Health Care Provider (HCP); infection control; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Horticulture and landscaping | CPR Level C; plant identification; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Hospitality and tourism | CPR Level C; customer service; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Information and communications technology | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Justice, community safety and emergency services | CPR Level C or Health Care Provider (HCP); conflict resolution; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Manufacturing | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Mining | CPR Level C; General Safety Awareness (GSA); Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Non-profit, education and child care | CPR Level C; ethical considerations; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
| Sports | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; WHMIS | yes | 3 |
| Transportation | CPR Level C; Intermediate First Aid; health and safety - basic; WHMIS | yes | 4 |
Counting the cells: Intermediate First Aid appears on all 19 sector lists, Construction lists five compulsory certifications, eleven sectors list four, and seven list three (Guide sector pages, updated August 28, 2026). Two of the 19, Health and wellness and Justice, community safety and emergency services, allow the CPR half at Level C or at Health Care Provider level. The other 17 name Level C.
For planning, the useful pattern is that first aid and CPR sit together on every one of those lists. One combined first aid and CPR course can clear two compulsory lines for a whole cohort in any sector. Construction is the only sector carrying five compulsory lines, and Health and Wellness is one of the eleven at four.
Where the name Intermediate comes from
Nothing in the Guide explains the name (Guide: Certification and training experiences). Ontario’s workplace first aid programme does. The WSIB First Aid Program page, updated July 22, 2026, states the change plainly:
“There are new names for training courses and certificates: Emergency First Aid is now called Basic First Aid, and Standard First Aid is now called Intermediate First Aid.”
The names come from a national standard. WSIB writes that they “are in line with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z1210:24 and are called Basic First Aid and Intermediate First Aid”. The same answer carries a wrinkle worth knowing before a board conversation: “In Regulation 1101, the names of certification levels remain Emergency First Aid and Standard First Aid.” Both names are current in Ontario right now, in different documents.
The issuing authorities are at different points in the change. The Lifesaving Society says: “This course used to be called Standard First Aid. As of June 22, 2026, it is renamed to Intermediate First Aid.” St. John Ambulance still lists the course under both names, “Standard/ Intermediate First Aid”, at 16 hours. WSIB gives the same length: the Intermediate programme “is 16 hours long”, against 8 hours for Basic.
Source: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, “First Aid Program” (updated July 22, 2026; wsib.ca/en/firstaid). Course naming and hours cross-checked against Lifesaving Society Ontario, “Intermediate First Aid with CPR-C & AED” (2026; lifesavingsociety.com/first-aid/intermediate-first-aid-with-cpr-c-aed.aspx) and St. John Ambulance, “First Aid Training” (2026; sja.ca/en/first-aid-training).
What to do about a Standard First Aid certificate
A student who certified before June 2026 holds a card with the old name on it. Two Ontario authorities answer that case directly, and they agree.
WSIB: “All first aid certificates issued up until June 21, 2026, will remain valid until they expire.” On how long that is: “All first aid certificates are valid for three years from the date of issue in Ontario.” On renewal: “Standard certificates issued prior to June 22, 2026, are eligible for recertification in the new program” (WSIB First Aid Program, updated July 2026). The Lifesaving Society puts it in months: “If you hold a Standard First Aid certification, it will still be valid for 36 months from your certification date” (2026).
What the Guide does not say is whether a certificate printed with the old name satisfies a sector’s compulsory list on the student’s SHSM record. That one goes to your board SHSM lead, in writing, before the transcript check rather than after it. Expect to meet the old name in your own files too: LearnIt’s recap of a two-day certification at Iona Catholic still calls the course Standard First Aid, because that was its name in November 2025.
What the school records
Whoever delivers the course, the school files the same two fields (Guide: Certification and training experiences, Delivery criteria):
“Your school must record these courses and certifications in the student management system and include the: number of hours involved; date the certification/training was completed.”
The same section asks for documentation “wherever possible”, meaning “a certificate or other proof of completion”. It goes to the portfolio and the SHSM record, and it carries “the title of each completed certification or training course”. The Guide does not say, but a certificate printed with the old title and a record line carrying the new one will not match on their face. Ask the provider what the certificate will say before the day and note the answer. The 2026-27 coordinator calendar shows when those records get checked.
What this digest leaves out
Each sector page also carries an elective list, three or four items chosen from dozens, and none of those are covered here. Neither is the delivery-model table on Guide: Certification and training experiences, which the delivery-models digest reproduces in full. The rest of the record chain sits on Guide: Documenting student progress, and the credit side of the programme on Guide: Bundle of credits.
How LearnIt helps
LearnIt delivers CPR and first aid certification days as an outside provider, under the Guide’s own industry-delivered and co-delivered models. In November 2025 LearnIt ran a two-day CPR and first aid certification at Iona Catholic Secondary School with the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Day one was theory and day two was practice. On May 15, 2026, LearnIt ran a healthcare experiential day at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. It was for 30 students and two teachers from Northern Secondary School (TDSB), and a CPR challenge was one of four simulation stations there rather than a certification. The certifications and ICE training guide describes the formats.
Your next step this week
Open your sector’s page in the Guide and read its compulsory list as it stands now. Then look at last year’s booking. If the paperwork says Standard First Aid, send two emails: one asking the provider what name the 2026-27 certificates will carry, and one asking your board SHSM lead how they want the record line to read. Both close before the first certification day is booked.