If you love working with your hands, and the idea of post-secondary education with no debt excites you, see about a full day (4 period) skilled trades coop where you be registered as an OYAP apprentice, called an OYAP registrant. There’s paperwork for that. Remember the participant form you signed in Grade 11? Same form, but now you need to sign sections 1 & 2 and provide additional information, namely your Social Insurance Number.  It’s important that you and your parents/ guardians complete and return this paperwork to your coop teacher, as it’s the first step in the OYAP coordinator creating your Registered Training Agreements, which are submitted to the Ministry of Labour Training and Skills Development. The creation of the agreements generates your client ID, which follows you throughout your apprenticeship training. Also, be sure to ask your coop teacher for your OYAP ID card, which must be carried on job sites.

Once you are registered, you can then count your coop hours towards your on-the-job training if your employer agrees.  That’s how you can start your apprenticeship in high school.  You graduate high school with coop credits toward your diploma AND hours toward your apprenticeship training.  A lot of times employers will hire coop students right after graduation, so they immediately start getting paid, still registered apprentices. After about a year on the job, apprentices go to trade school in 8-10 week blocks called Level 1, 2 and 3. After trade school they come back to the job site and immediately use what they learned in class to get better at their trade.

Pro tip: Download the Training standard for your trade.  These are readily available with a quick google search.  Training standards give an overview of the entire apprenticeship as well as individual skills and competencies you will need for certification.  

Action Item: Talk to your guidance counsellor. Stack semester 1 timetable with compulsory credits for graduation.  Take full day (4 period) coop in semester 2.