OAYEC : Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres

Visitors Youth Members
Members > News

OAYECPositioning Bulletin

The OAYEC Positioning Bulletin shares OAYEC's positions, values or discussion items related to the youth employment sector, and is available the first Monday of every month.




TOPIC for May 7th, 2007:

Learning to 18 – External Credits

 

Backgrounder

Supporting student success is a concept that OAYEC fully supports. OAYEC has been participating on the Ministry of Educations Learning to 18 roundtable whose main goal is to provide advice on a range of fundamental issues within the Ministry that affect student success – especially for those students who have traditionally struggled to succeed, have not gone on to post-secondary education, or have left high school early.

 

OAYEC's Position

One can not succeed in curriculum unless you succeed in life, so one must involve the whole community in student success.

  • Students struggling are often under pressure for non-school reasons
  • Teachers are often not equipped to deal with non-school needs
  • Community-based agencies provide fresh perspectives and a diverse range of skills to get struggling students back on track
  • Students need alternative programming to gain their interest, build their assets, and grow their potential.

Therefore, it is important to include community based organizations as partners for delivering student success initiatives.

 

What are External Credits?

External Credits are an idea that may become part of Ministry policy and programs to support students who are prone to leaving school early. External Credits would allow school boards to provide recognized learning opportunities (i.e. high school credits) to students in partnership with community groups, the business community, training centres, colleges, universities and other organizations providing programs for young people. Both school boards and the Ministry of Education would be able to enter into agreements with these groups so students can more easily participate in non-traditional educational experiences and maintain or improve their high school credit accumulation.

It is important for youth employment centres to be informed and participate in student success and in particular with those aspects of the Learning to 18 initiative that could affect them directly, such as External Credits. Youth Employment Centres already see 20% of early school leavers through their doors every year.

OAYEC would like to work in collaboration with our member agencies to propose that the Ministry of Education provide funding to complete a pilot study which examines potential models of external credits accumulation through programs offered by youth employment centers. The project could be very similar to a study on “dual credits” (late-high-school credits delivered in partnership with colleges) that has recently been completed. For example, the study could look at:

  • Existing school/YEC partnerships
  • Pilot program sites
  • All across Ontario

This study could inform further policy and program development that supports and invests in more successful school/YEC partnerships.

We would like to discuss the pros and cons of this with all members in late spring / early summer of 2007. If you are interested please contact Soni Dasmohapatra at OAYEC.

 

For more information, please contact:

Soni Dasmohapatra
sdasmohapatra@oayec.org

 

OAYECThe GO TO organization for youth employment issues.

The OAYEC Positioning Bulletin is a monthly newsletter provided by the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres. OAYEC's mission is to support and advocate for a sustainable youth employment delivery network.

Feedback, comments, and suggestions for future Positioning Bulletins are welcome!
Contact: Soni Dasmohapatra, Researcher, sdasmohapatra@oayec.org

OAYEC Bulletin Archives: http://www.oayec.org/members/news/bulletin/

To Unsubscribe:
You can unsubscribe by using the sign-up box on OAYEC's website at http://www.oayec.org/members/news/bulletin/