Specialist High Skills Health and Wellness

The SHSM–Health and Wellness enables students to build a foundation of sector-focused knowledge and skills before graduating and entering apprenticeship training, college, university, or an entry-level position in the workplace. Where local circumstances allow, boards may elect to offer one or more variants of the SHSM in a given sector, each with a particular area of focus. This SHSM may be designed to have a particular focus – for example, on health care, fitness, or child care and family services. This focus is achieved through the selection of the four major credits in the bundle.

Required Components for the SHSM–Health and Wellness

The SHSM–Health and Wellness has the following five required components:

1. A bundle of nine Grade 11 and Grade 12 credits

These credits make up the bundle:

four health and wellness major credits that provide sector-specific knowledge and skills. The four courses must include at least one Grade 11 and one Grade 12 credit, and may include one cooperative education credit related to the sector. (This cooperative education credit would be additional to the two that are required in the bundle; see below);
three other required credits from the Ontario curriculum. Schools may commit to including a contextualized learning activity (CLA) for the health and wellness sector in each of the three credits. In each credit, some of the course expectations are then met through the CLA. (Schools that do not formally commit to including CLAs are still free to offer them in one or more of the credits.) The three credits include:
- one in English;
- one in mathematics; and
- one in science or social sciences and humanities (or a cooperative education credit related to the sector, which would be additional to the two cooperative education credits required in the bundle; see below);
two cooperative education credits that provide authentic learning experiences in a workplace setting, enabling students to refine, extend, apply, and practise knowledge and skills outlined in the cooperative education curriculum as well as sector-specific knowledge and skills.