Alright, can someone please explain this?
I was talking to one teacher a few weeks back that says our 2–3-hour courses are way too long — “The ministry standard is one hour!” Another teacher insists that three hours minimum! Meanwhile, other companies are doing 45-minute sessions and also claiming they’re following ministry rules.
So I did what any reasonable person would do — I went straight to the Ontario Ministry of Education’s SHSM guide to find out what the actual standard is. And guess what? There isn’t one.
The guide talks about credit bundles, certifications, and something called Contextualized Learning Activities (CLAs) — but nowhere does it say how long a course, session, or workshop should be.
What CLAs Actually Are
Here’s where some of the confusion might come from. The SHSM guide does mention that CLAs should take about 6–10 hours — but that’s not referring to an entire course or teaching session. A CLA is just a short project or unit within a regular course that connects what students are learning to their SHSM sector.
For example, a CLA in Construction might involve using geometry to design a roof truss, or in Health & Wellness, writing a care plan in English class.
Meanwhile, ICE (Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship) and SPE (Sector-Partnered Experiences) are completely separate — they fall under certifications and training (like First Aid or WHMIS), not classroom activities.
So if people are quoting the 6–10-hour CLA range as a “ministry class length,” they’re misunderstanding what that section actually means.
Still Waiting for a Straight Answer
After digging through ministry documents, maybe there is internal communication, we as service providers are not privy to.
If this stuff is not widely published, how are service providers expected to follow Ministry Standards, when the teachers, even within the same Board, give us different answers?
That probably explains why everyone’s citing something different — one-hour, three-hour, forty-five-minute — none of it seems to come from the actual policy.
If anyone has a definitive source from the ministry that says otherwise, please share it. Because right now, it feels like we’re all guessing — and calling it compliance.
Signed,
Asking for a friend (OK, I am the friend)…