What is the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program?
Who can participate?
Do you need experience in the trades to start?
Preparing for OYAP
What kinds of skilled trades do RRDSB OYAP students learn?
Check out the amazing employers who support our OYAP students!
Who to contact
Learn more
What is the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)?
The Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program allows a Co-op student to begin to learn a skilled trade while completing the requirements for a high school diploma. A co-op student may be signed as an apprentice with the employer at the time of their placement. Students graduate with a diploma, skills in a trade, experience in the workplace, and a head start in a skilled profession.
OYAP also is responsible for the promotion of skilled trades and apprenticeship as a "first choice" pathway for students after graduation, on par with college or university programs.
To participate in OYAP a student must:
- be enrolled in secondary school full-time or part-time;
- be at least 15 years old*
- have at least 14 secondary credits*
- be enrolled in a Cooperative Education course through their school, where the placement is in a skilled trades setting;
- be working towards an OSSD (Ontario Secondary School Diploma)
For most students, this means they can start as soon as the summer before they enter grade 11! (Depending on availability of summer co-op programs and skilled trades placements, and minimum age requirements for workplaces as defined by the Labour Act.)
Previous experience in a particular skilled trade is not a mandatory requirement for OYAP participants. OYAP employers agree that the main thing they look for in a potential apprentice is a willingness to learn.
OYAP is designed to encourage all young people to experience the skilled trades while they have the support of families and school staff. While experience helps, either through Tech Ed courses or other personal experience, not all students who want to explore a skilled trade have had the same opportunities to get that experience. OYAP is there to help!
Check the video below for stories of some students who made the decision to try the skilled trades through OYAP, and haven't looked back!