Pathways
As students move through secondary school, they need to begin to focus on an initial destination with regard to education, training, the workplace or community living. During the course selection process, students research and select their courses in order to reach this initial destination. Their plan needs to reflect their achievement, information on post-secondary opportunities, a financial plan, employment opportunities, job search skills and career exploration and experiential learning opportunities.
What students believe about themselves and their opportunities, and what their peers and the adults in their lives believe about them, significantly influences the choices they make and the degree to which they are able to achieve their goals. The new education and career/life planning policy for Ontario schools is based on the belief that all students can be successful, that success comes in many forms, and that there are many different pathways to success. The policy is founded on a vision in which all students leave secondary school with a clear plan for
their initial post-secondary destination— whether it be apprenticeship training, college, community living, university, or the workplace—and with the confidence that they can revise their plans as they, and the work around them, change.
This vision sees students as the architects of their lives.
The goals of the Education and Career/Life Planning Program are to:
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- ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills they need to make informed education and career/life choices;
- provide classroom and school-wide opportunities for this learning; and
- engage parents and the broader community in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the program, to support students in their learning.
An Education and Career/Life Planning Program to Support Student Success*
Program Goals
Creating Pathways to Success
Program Framework
Individual Pathways Plan (IPP)
Post-secondary Transition Planning
The framework of the Education and Career/Life Planning Program is a four-step inquiry process based on four questions linked to four areas of learning--
- Who am I? (Knowing Yourself);
- What are my opportunities? (Exploring Opportunities);
- Who do I want to become? (Making Decisions and Setting Goals); and
- What is my plan for achieving my goals? (Achieving Goals and Making Transitions).
The steps are not necessarily sequential—throughout their school years and throughout their lives, students will continually explore, assess, and reassess their knowledge of themselves, their opportunities, their goals, and their plans for achieving their goals.
* Creating Pathways to Success: An Education and Career/Life Planning Program for Ontario Schools– Policy and Program requirements, Kindergarten to Grade 12, 2013 (referred to as CPS)