Experiential Learning is a key component of our secondary programs supporting students as they learn about themselves, exploring career and employment opportunities that contribute to developing skills and habits necessary to succeed in education and career/life planning. These programs include Co-Operative Education, Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP), Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM), School-College Work Initiative (SCWI Dual Credits), and Land-Based Cultural Learning. KPDSB students are supported with varied experiences and opportunities. Combined with the learning expectations from Creating Pathways to Success, it is our vision that all students leave secondary school with a clear plan for their initial postsecondary destination. In high school, KPDSB programs are planned to support all pathways, including apprenticeship, college, community living, university, and workplace.
School teams have collaborated and communicated across our secondary schools, developing our capacity to offer successful Specialist High Skills Major Programs. SHSM programs provide opportunities for KPDSB students to engage in career-readiness learning in seventeen sectors. KPDSB offers SHSM programs in transportation, construction, manufacturing, environment, mining, business and health and wellness. We’re planning for the newly added arts and culture SHSM program for 2020–2021 at Beaver Brae Secondary School.
In 2019–2020, KPDSB graduated the highest number of Red Seals ever and added a new health and wellness sector at Ignace High and Dryden High School (DHS) and a new business program at DHS.
Each of our six high schools provided opportunities for students to work with community employers and partners, earning Innovation, Creativity, Entrepreneurship Certification (ICE) training as one of their SHSM components. Schools partnered with local municipalities and industry and provincial partners to deliver this training opportunity to students, focusing on problem-based inquiry learning with local employers in a virtual environment. Despite some challenges presented by COVID-19, students continued to access a full menu of opportunities to learn about career readiness in various sector-related fields, including the completion of online certifications, virtual Co-Op Education and access to state-of-the-art innovative e-learning solutions like EdgeFactor and myBluePrint. Students continued learning about local workforce development and market trends and built relationships with local companies and partners, pursuing individual pathways to post-secondary and employment destinations.
KPDSB partnered with Confederation College to support the delivery of Dual Credit Programs where students earn high school and college credits. Dual Credit Programs are designed to engage students, and the success rate for those who participate, graduate and transition to a post-secondary destination is very high. In 2019–2020, programs focused on Dual Credit opportunities supporting skilled trades and technology and land-based learning opportunities.
In 2019–2020, sixty-five KPDSB students accessed support from the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program. They participated in various skilled-trade placements, including general carpentry, automotive service, child and youth work and hairstyling. Before graduating, students participating in OYAP have opportunities to work with a mentor to develop the sector-related skills and knowledge required to consider an apprenticeship pathway. KPDSB’s OYAP enrollments in the educational assistant trade have increased by 20% over the past three years. We are very proud of KPDSB graduate Kitah Berens, who signed a Level 1 Agreement (310S Automotive Service Technician) in 2020. She is our first OYAP participant in a Dual Credit Program at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
KPDSB students participated in activities hosted by Skills Ontario, including events for young women and Indigenous students to explore the skilled trades and technology pathways. Students participated in skills challenges, heard from mentors representing various fields, and participated in hands-on activities, including plumbing, construction and culinary arts.
Cosmetology teacher Lisa Durocher from Dryden High School encouraged her cosmetology students to submit a hairstyle for the #SkillsWackyHairChallenge. Danielle Henderson was thrilled to earn a second-place finish with her tic-tac-toe design.
Experiential learning is a key component of our secondary programs. In response to the challenges associated with COVID-19, KPDSB students had access to experiential learning opportunities, including sector partner ICE training, virtual Co-Op, reach-ahead post-secondary virtual tours, access to certifications and training, skills competitions and math literacy sector partner experiences (SPE). The skills competition events are often the culmination of a student’s dedication to the pursuit of learning in the skilled trades and technology fields. Although these were cancelled in the spring of 2020, KPDSB students from Grades 7–12 continued to engage in the provincial skills-at-home challenges. Special acknowledgement is given to our KPDSB teachers who worked to provide engaging projects and share opportunities to support KP students as they learned from home, exploring career and employment opportunities that contribute to developing the skills and habits necessary to succeed in education and career/life planning.
