Hospitality students plating dishes in a teaching kitchen during a culinary workshop
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SHSM Hospitality and Tourism: Educator Guide

Sean Zhang · · Updated · Sector

The SHSM Hospitality and Tourism sector is one of Ontario’s most placement-rich Specialist High Skills Major programs, and one of the most regulated. Ontario’s accommodation and food services sector employs 420,500 workers (2024), and 42.5% of them are aged 15 to 24, the most youth-heavy industry in the province. That makes SHSM Hospitality and Tourism a sector with no shortage of co-op partners, but with three age rules, a food-safety regulation, and an alcohol-service licence that every coordinator needs to get right.

Source: Government of Canada Job Bank, “Sectoral profile: Accommodation and food services, Ontario” (2024; nl.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis/job-market-reports/ontario/sectoral-profile-accommodation).

This guide covers the SHSM Hospitality and Tourism credit bundle, the four compulsory and two elective certifications, the Smart Serve and food handler clarifications students and parents most often ask about, the Red Seal trade pathway through a high-school start, named SPE partner categories, and the way LearnIt supports the sector. For the broader SHSM overview, start with our guide to what SHSM is.

Service team setting tables at a Toronto hotel banquet hall

What Is the SHSM Hospitality and Tourism Sector?

The SHSM Hospitality and Tourism sector is an Ontario Ministry of Education program for Grade 11 and Grade 12 students who want to focus their secondary studies on the work of the hospitality, food service, and tourism industries. Students enrolled in SHSM Hospitality and Tourism complete a structured bundle of credits, earn industry certifications, complete co-op placements with a hospitality or tourism employer, and participate in reach-ahead activities that connect them to college, university, or apprenticeship destinations. The program ends with an embossed SHSM seal on the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, a sector notation on the Ontario Student Transcript, and a self-identification checkbox on both OUAC (for university applications) and OCAS (for college applications), giving admissions offices and scholarship committees direct visibility into the completion.

The SHSM Hospitality and Tourism bundle is 9 credits. That breaks down as 4 major credits in hospitality and tourism, 1 English credit, 1 Math credit, 1 “other required” credit (a science, a business studies course, an additional major credit, or an additional hospitality and tourism co-op credit), and 2 cooperative education credits in a hospitality and tourism workplace. The same 9-credit bundle structure applies across all four destination pathways: apprenticeship, college, university, and workplace. Students must also complete 4 compulsory certifications (Intermediate First Aid (formerly Standard First Aid), CPR Level C with AED, WHMIS, and Customer Service) and 2 electives from the sector-specific list.

SHSM Hospitality and Tourism spans five tourism subsectors recognized by the industry: accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, travel services, and transportation. Students with interests in cooking, baking, hotel service, event planning, travel, parks and recreation, or Indigenous tourism all find a fit here. The 9-credit bundle is the same across all four destination pathways (apprenticeship, college, university, workplace), so a student’s pathway decision affects course choices within the bundle, not the bundle size itself.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Education, “SHSM Policy and Implementation Guide – Hospitality and Tourism” (ontario.ca/document/specialist-high-skills-major-shsm-policy-and-implementation-guide/hospitality-and-tourism, updated August 28, 2026). Bundle composition cross-referenced from the Ministry’s “Bundle of credits / CLAs” page (ontario.ca/document/specialist-high-skills-major-shsm-policy-and-implementation-guide/bundle-credits).

For the full picture of how the SHSM bundle, certifications, and SPE fit together, see our SHSM requirements guide.

Course Requirements for Hospitality and Tourism SHSM

The four major credits in the Hospitality and Tourism bundle are drawn from a Ministry-approved list of courses across four discipline areas:

  • Hospitality and tourism (Grade 11 and Grade 12)
  • Food and nutrition
  • Food and culture, or food and healthy living
  • Travel and tourism geography

The remaining credits are 1 English, 1 Math, 1 “other required” credit, and 2 co-op credits in a hospitality and tourism placement. Either the English or the Math credit can be paired with a Contextualized Learning Activity (CLA) that applies the discipline to a hospitality and tourism scenario.

The Ministry does not publish the approved course list publicly. The qualifying course list is maintained on the password-protected SHSM e-Community and shared with each board’s SHSM lead, and it shifts year to year. Coordinators planning a student’s bundle should confirm the current list with their board SHSM lead rather than rely on a third-party reference.

Hospitality and Tourism SHSM Certifications

The Ministry specifies 4 compulsory certifications and 2 elective certifications for SHSM Hospitality and Tourism, for a total of 6.

The four compulsory certifications are:

  • Intermediate First Aid
  • CPR Level C, including AED
  • WHMIS (generic)
  • Customer service training (the board chooses a specific provider)

For a broader explanation of how compulsory certifications work, see our ICE training and certifications guide.

The two elective certifications are chosen from a Ministry list of about 30 options. Selected examples that boards routinely use for the Hospitality and Tourism sector:

  • Food Handler Certification
  • Smart Serve
  • Cook or line cook training
  • Event coordination
  • Guest services
  • Tour guide
  • Tourism basic
  • Heritage interpreter
  • Anti-oppression and allyship training
  • Wilderness first aid

Smart Serve and the Age Rules That Confuse Everyone

Smart Serve has no minimum age to take the course; the legal age to serve, sell, or handle alcohol in Ontario is 18, and the legal drinking age is 19. That single line clears up the question Hospitality and Tourism coordinators get most often. A 16-year-old SHSM student can complete the Smart Serve course and hold the certification (valid 5 years), but cannot pour a drink at a placement bar until 18, or drink one until 19.

Smart Serve Ontario is the only AGCO-approved responsible-alcohol-service training in the province. The 2026 online cost is $44.95 plus tax.

Source: AGCO, “Information sheet: Legal drinking age and photo ID” (agco.ca/en/alcohol/information-sheet-legal-drinking-age-and-photo-id). Smart Serve age policy: Smart Serve Ontario (smartserve.ca) and University of Guelph HFTM Smart Serve information page (uoguelph.ca/hftm/print/2253), 2025.

Food Handler Certification

Ontario Regulation 493/17 (the Food Premises Regulation) requires every food service premise to have at least one certified food handler or supervisor present every hour of operation. That rule is why Food Handler Certification is the most-used hospitality elective: a student who holds it walks into placements with a credential the operator legally needs on the schedule. Certificates are issued by local public health units and recognized providers, and there is no minimum age to certify.

Source: Government of Ontario, “Food handler training and certification” (ontario.ca/page/food-handler-training-and-certification, current 2025).

A few certifications that boards have piloted but that are not on the published Ministry elective list (and would need board-level approval to count): the emerit Work-Ready Credential from Tourism HR Canada, regional Tourism Ambassador programs in Niagara, Ottawa, and Central Counties, and Indigenous Tourism Ontario workshops.

Career Pathways and Red Seal Trades

The Hospitality and Tourism SHSM connects to the broadest set of post-secondary destinations of any sector. Students can move into:

  • Hotel and resort operations
  • Restaurant and food and beverage management
  • Event planning and conference services
  • Tourism marketing and destination management
  • Travel agency and tour operations
  • Recreation and parks management
  • Indigenous tourism and cultural interpretation
  • Outdoor and adventure tourism
  • Cruise and aviation hospitality

Three Red Seal trades sit inside this sector and can be started in high school through the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP): Cook, Baker, and Assistant Cook. A student who registers through OYAP completes their secondary diploma while logging hours toward trade certification. The Red Seal endorsement makes the trade portable across Canada. For more on how the Red Seal interacts with the SHSM credential, see our guide to the SHSM Red Seal.

Ontario carries an unusually deep list of post-secondary options for hospitality and tourism graduates:

For students aiming at Guelph or TMU, the 220 co-op hours from the SHSM bundle (covered in the next section) start the clock toward those graduation requirements.

Several institutions offer SHSM-specific entrance scholarships. Smart Serve Ontario contributes to more than 20 scholarships at Ontario colleges and universities, Georgian College runs a Smart Serve Ontario Scholarship at $2,000 awarded twice a year, St. Clair College offers $1,500, and the University of Windsor offers $1,000. For the full provincial list, see our SHSM scholarships guide.

Source: University of Guelph Lang School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management program page (uoguelph.ca/programs/hospitality-and-tourism-management/, 2025). Industry hours and program age confirmed from the same source. Smart Serve scholarship contributions: Smart Serve Ontario industry partners list (smartserve.ca, 2025).

Experiential Learning and SPE Opportunities

Each co-op credit equals a minimum of 110 placement hours under the 2018 Ontario Cooperative Education curriculum, so the 2-credit hospitality and tourism bundle equals a minimum of 220 placement hours. Co-op credits are all-or-nothing: students earn both or zero. The placement must sit in a hospitality and tourism workplace and connect to the linked major course. WSIB coverage for unpaid placements flows through the Ministry under PPM 76A once a Work Education Agreement is signed; paid placements are covered by the employer.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Education, “The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Cooperative Education, 2018” (edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/cooperative-education-2018.pdf). WSIB coverage policy from PPM 76A (ontario.ca/document/education-ontario-policy-and-program-direction/policyprogram-memorandum-76a, effective August 2018).

The Three Age Rules Coordinators Must Apply

Hospitality and tourism placements run into Ontario’s industry-by-industry minimum-age table under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The single most common placement error is putting a 14-year-old in a kitchen.

  • 14 = restaurant serving areas, front of house, cashier.
  • 15 = restaurant kitchens, food prep, back of house (treated as “factories” under OHSA).
  • 18 = serve, sell, or handle alcohol (AGCO rule, paired with Smart Serve above).

A 14-year-old can take a guest order, run a register, or seat tables at a SHSM placement. The same student cannot legally work the line behind the pass. Match the placement task list to the student’s age before the Work Education Agreement is signed.

Source: Government of Ontario, “Minimum age to work” (ontario.ca/page/minimum-age-work, current 2025).

SPE Partner Categories That Work in Ontario

SHSM Hospitality and Tourism has the broadest partner network of any SHSM sector. Categories Ontario coordinators routinely place into:

  • Hotels: Fairmont Royal York, Chelsea Hotel Toronto, Four Seasons Toronto.
  • Tourism boards and DMOs: Destination Toronto, Destination Ontario, Niagara Falls Tourism, Ottawa Tourism.
  • Convention centres: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Shaw Centre Ottawa.
  • Theme parks and attractions: Canada’s Wonderland hires roughly 4,000 seasonal workers each season and accepts applicants as young as 15. Niagara Parks runs up to 1,300 seasonal positions. Ontario Place and the CN Tower are repeat partners.
  • Parks: Ontario Parks runs about 1,600 summer jobs across more than 340 provincial parks. Parks Canada hires for sites including Bruce Peninsula, Point Pelee, and Rideau Canal.
  • Festivals: Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, TIFF, Luminato.
  • Indigenous tourism: Indigenous Tourism Ontario, Mādahòkì Farm in Ottawa, Great Spirit Circle Trail on Manitoulin, Chiefswood Park at Six Nations.

Source: Canada’s Wonderland 2025 hiring page (canadaswonderland.com, 2025); Ontario Parks careers page (ontarioparks.ca/careers, 2025); Niagara Parks Commission seasonal hiring (niagaraparks.com, 2025).

How LearnIt Supports Hospitality and Tourism SHSM Programs

LearnIt has delivered SHSM programming for more than 20 Ontario school boards, including TCDSB, TDSB, PDSB, YCDSB, WCDSB, HCDSB, HWDSB, and HDSB. Three regular offerings map onto the Hospitality and Tourism sector requirements:

  • CPR Level C and Intermediate First Aid certification. LearnIt delivers the WSIB-approved combination through nurses for $120 per student, or CPR-only for $85. One sitting covers two of the four compulsory hospitality and tourism certifications.
  • ICE-format SPE workshops. The Ministry’s SPE expectation is a co-designed activity grounded in Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship. Leadership, project management, customer service, and design thinking workshops fit hotel-service, tourism-board, and event-planning placements naturally.
  • Industry partner field trips. LearnIt runs hands-on visits with corporate partners including Google, Microsoft, Accenture, and MaRS Discovery District. The customer-experience, marketing, and operations content translates to the sector.

LearnIt’s facilitator team is composed of early-career professionals in their 20s and 30s, intentionally chosen as relatable mentors who connect with students through shared cultural references and authentic career stories.

Explore how LearnIt can support your Hospitality and Tourism SHSM program with certification training, ICE-format SPE workshops, and field trip programming.

Getting Started

SHSM Hospitality and Tourism is a 9-credit bundle (4 major + 1 English + 1 math + 1 other + 2 co-op) plus 4 compulsory certifications, 2 electives, a Sector-Partnered Experience, and reach-ahead activities. Customer service is the fourth compulsory certification (a sector-specific addition beyond the usual Intermediate First Aid, CPR Level C with AED, and WHMIS), and Food Handler and Smart Serve are the two most-used electives. Smart Serve has no minimum age to take, but a student must be 18 to serve alcohol and 19 to drink it under AGCO rules. Cook, Baker, and Assistant Cook are Red Seal trades reachable through OYAP starting in high school. The 2-credit co-op equals a minimum of 220 placement hours, and the OHSA “14 in serving areas, 15 in kitchens, 18 to serve alcohol” rule decides what each student can legally do on placement. Those are the three age rules every SHSM hospitality and tourism coordinator must teach before the first Work Education Agreement is signed.

With 420,500 workers in Ontario accommodation and food services (2024) and 42.5% of them aged 15 to 24, the placement market is the most youth-friendly in the province. The work for coordinators is routing students into the right placements at the right ages and confirming the certification stack matches the placement tasks.

For the full SHSM program structure, return to our SHSM guide. To explore related sectors, see Health and Wellness, Business, or the Red Seal credential. Students and parents weighing the program can also read Is SHSM worth it?