The SHSM Policy and Implementation Guide in 15 Minutes
The Ministry’s Specialist High Skills Major Policy and Implementation Guide is the document every SHSM decision at your school has to answer to, and almost nobody reads it end to end. The SHSM Policy and Implementation Guide runs to roughly 200 printed pages across 37 web pages. A coordinator between classes needs something else: the requirements, in the Guide’s own words, arranged by the task in front of them. That is what this page is. It is not a replacement for the Guide. Every section below names and links the Guide page it comes from.
The Guide states its audience plainly: “This guide is for educators and school board staff.” If you are new to SHSM as a programme rather than as a policy, start with what SHSM is and come back here.
Which edition of the SHSM Policy and Implementation Guide you are reading
The Guide is not one document with one date. Each page carries its own “Updated” stamp, and they differ. When we read it on 2026-09-07, the root page and the core policy pages were stamped October 20, 2025 (Components, Bundle of credits, Certification and training, Sector-partnered experiences, Documenting student progress). The Experiential learning page was stamped November 14, 2025. The Reach ahead experiences page was stamped June 10, 2026. Every one of the 19 sector pages was stamped August 28, 2026. The August 2026 sector update is the one to notice this term: every sector page that requires first aid now names Intermediate First Aid as the compulsory certification. If a board document you rely on still says Standard First Aid, the Guide is the newer source.
Task 1: Getting a new SHSM approved
The Guide organizes planning into five steps: learn about the program, organize who you will work with, plan for each new SHSM program, implement your program, and evaluate it (Guide: Planning and implementation). Two sentences from that page decide your calendar:
“All new SHSM program proposals are submitted through the Education Data Collection Solution (EDCS) SHSM online reporting tool. Submitting proposals is a school board responsibility.”
“This is an annual process. Submissions are usually due in late December.”
So the proposal is the board’s to file, not the school’s, and the window closes in December for the following year. The Guide’s own advice: “Talk to your principal for details about your school board’s submission process.”
Three constraints from the Components page shape what you can propose:
“You may offer only SHSMs that we (the Ministry of Education) have approved.”
“You must offer your SHSM in all 4 pathways: apprenticeship training, college, university and workplace. You cannot substitute for any of the required bundle of credits. Your school board may add to each of the SHSM’s components to reflect a local emphasis.”
The approved list is a public dataset on data.ontario.ca, updated each school year. The four-pathways rule means a programme cannot be built for university-bound students only; the pathways chart the Guide asks for has to show all four routes.
Task 2: Building the bundle of credits
The bundle is the first of the five required components. The Guide’s overview (Guide: Bundle of credits) sets the shape: 8 to 10 credits, in three parts.
“The bundle consists of: 4 major credits; 2 to 4 other required credits; 2 required cooperative education credits.”
That gives 8 to 10 credits depending on the sector. The exact composition for your sector is on its sector page, and the SHSM requirements guide walks through it from the student’s side. Two rules matter for the coordinator:
- Co-op has a floor and a ceiling. Students “must earn at least 2 co-op credits” and may take “up to 4 additional co-op credits”. Of those additional credits, “up to 3 may be used as part of the 4 major credits” (Guide: Bundle of credits, Cooperative education and Additional co-op credits).
- The bundle itself cannot be substituted. The compulsory English or Math credit inside it can be, within provincial policy. The Guide’s wording: “Your principal can approve substitutions of an English or Math compulsory credit in an SHSM bundle of credits if it aligns with Ontario Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Policy and Program Requirements” (Guide: Documenting student progress, Substitutions).
The sector pages do not print the approved major courses. Each one says the same thing: “We (the Ministry of Education) maintain an SHSM-approved course list for the [sector] sector. Contact the SHSM lead at your school board to get the list.” So the list is the Ministry’s, the copy is the board lead’s, and neither is on the public page. Describe majors to students at the discipline level and send them to the board SHSM lead for the current list.
Task 3: Certifications and training
Every sector has a compulsory list and an elective list (Guide: Certification and training experiences):
“All SHSMs have sector-recognized certifications and/or training courses. They include specified numbers of: compulsory certifications and/or training courses such as first aid, CPR and WHMIS; elective certifications and/or training courses.”
The counts differ by sector. Construction requires five compulsory certifications, Health and Wellness and Business four, several sectors three; the certifications and ICE training guide tabulates nine sectors, and each sector page carries its own list. The delivery rules are the same everywhere:
“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.”
“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.”
Each course must “have an assessment and evaluation component” and, wherever possible, produce documentation for the student’s portfolio and SHSM record. The Guide also lays out four delivery models with their trade-offs; Four ways to deliver an SHSM certification reproduces that table and reads it as a budget and a calendar. Industry-delivered training is current and hands-on but “may be expensive” and “may present a scheduling challenge”. The other three are online, co-delivered by a sector partner and the school, and teacher-delivered under a train-the-trainer model. Choosing among them is a budget and timetable decision the Guide leaves to you. The record-keeping requirement does not change with the model.
Task 4: Experiential learning and career exploration activities
The third component is the broadest. The Guide defines it as “planned learning activities that take place outside the traditional classroom setting” (Guide: Experiential learning and career exploration) and lists the forms with their limits:
| Activity type | The Guide’s limit | Where it can sit |
|---|---|---|
| Career exploration (work-site tours, career conferences, competitions, contact with a career mentor) | none stated | ”may be incorporated into any credit course” |
| Job shadowing | ”up to 2 days in a row” | any credit course |
| Job twinning (observing a co-op student at their placement) | “up to 2 days in a row” | any credit course |
| Work experience or virtual work experience | ”up to 4 weeks” | any credit course |
The practical point is the last column: these activities do not need their own course. A single well-planned day inside an existing credit satisfies the component if it is recorded.
Task 5: Reach-ahead experiences
The fourth component points forward. Students “need reach ahead experiences that connect with their postsecondary plans” (Guide: Reach ahead experiences). The Guide’s examples are modest in scale. A student interviews someone who works in a profession they are interested in, visits an approved apprenticeship training delivery agent, or interviews a college or university student in a programme of interest. A reach-ahead is defined by its direction, toward the student’s next destination, not by its size. This page of the Guide was updated June 10, 2026, later than the core policy pages, so read it fresh rather than from an old board handout.
Task 6: Sector-Partnered Experiences
The fifth component has the most specific rules (Guide: Sector-partnered experiences). Students “must complete at least 1 sector-partnered experience”, and an SPE should “be approximately 6 hours in duration (may be delivered over multiple days)”. Every SPE has one of three focus areas:
“All SPEs focus on 1 of these areas: innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship; coding (computer programming); math literacy.”
And every SPE must be:
“co-designed and co-delivered by sector partners and teachers; designed for a particular SHSM sector; recorded in the student management system upon completion, including the focus area (ICE, coding or math literacy).”
It must also “conclude with a self-assessment that supports students in reflecting on their learning” and follow the school’s field-trip protocols where they apply. Note what the Guide does not say: ICE is a focus area an SPE takes, not a separate certification. A partner day that runs six hours, names its focus area, involves a teacher in the design, and ends with a student self-assessment meets the definition.
Task 7: Tracking, recording, and issuing the SHSM
The Guide is explicit that documentation is the school’s job (Guide: Documenting student progress):
“Your school must track the 5 components of an SHSM: completion of the bundle of credits; certifications and training experiences by date and number of hours; experiential learning and career exploration activities; reach-ahead experiences; completion of sector-partnered experiences (SPEs).”
Three documents carry the result. The diploma: “We give an OSSD with an embossed SHSM seal to students who complete both the OSSD and SHSM requirements. Students who earn the OSSD but not all SHSM components receive an OSSD without the seal.” The transcript: “The school marks SHSM credits with an “H” in the “Notes” column.” And the SHSM record, which “the school gives … to the student upon graduation and files a copy in their Ontario Student Record (OSR)”.
For the student who does not finish, the Guide gives one notation: “Use the notation “partially completed” on the SHSM record when a student: opts out of the SHSM; transfers to another school; graduates without completing all the SHSM components.” A transfer student’s record travels with them, and the Guide asks the receiving board to help the student complete the programme where possible.
What this digest leaves out
The Guide has whole pages this digest does not summarize because they are about how to run a programme well rather than what it must contain. Open them directly when the task arrives:
- Building SHSM teams and partnerships, and SHSM team roles (who should be on the school team, sector advisors, professional learning communities).
- Planning for the SHSM, and Implementing an SHSM at your school (choosing which SHSM to offer, developing pathways charts, registration and acceptance criteria, timetabling options, promoting the programme to Grade 7 and 8 families).
- Steps for planning and delivering an SPE, Dual credit courses, and the Sectors overview.
- Program evaluation (the Guide’s measurement indicators).
- Adapting SHSMs for students with special education needs (IEP transition planning, accommodations).
- Resources and checklists (the principal’s implementation checklist, the workplace safety policy pointer, the visual identity style guide).
Each of those will get its own digest here.
How LearnIt helps
Two of the components above are the ones schools most often bring a partner in for. Certification days (CPR-C with first aid, customer service, leadership) are industry-delivered certifications under the Guide’s delivery models. ICE challenge days are one form a Sector-Partnered Experience can take: six hours, a named focus area, co-designed with the teacher, ending in a student self-assessment. LearnIt has run both this school year. On 2026-04-28 it ran a leadership and customer service certification day with TDSB, PDSB, and YCDSB schools at Toronto Metropolitan University. On 2026-03-05 it ran an ICE challenge for the Guelph Food Bank with Waterloo Catholic DSB students at Communitech. The certifications and ICE training guide describes the formats, and the Health and Wellness and Construction sector guides show how they fit two very different bundles.
Your next step this week
Open your sector’s page on the Guide and check its “Updated” stamp against whatever board document you have been planning from. If the board document predates August 28, 2026, compare the compulsory certification list line by line before you book a provider.