Ontario high school to college, university or a trade
What your child needs to finish high school in Ontario, and what each of the three next steps asks for, written for parents who did not go through the system here.
Updated October 30, 2026 · 3 min read · Canada
For counsellors and teachers: add your own notes above any section, then send the guide to a family from your own email. The notes travel in the link.
In Ontario a student finishes high school with a diploma, then takes one of three main routes: university, college, or an apprenticeship in a skilled trade. Each route asks for different Grade 11 and 12 courses, so the choices made in Grade 10 and 11 matter more than most families expect.
Everything below comes from the Ontario government's own pages and the schools' own admission pages, read in October 2026.
What every student needs to graduate
The Ontario Secondary School Diploma needs 30 credits. A credit is one full course. For students who started Grade 9 in 2024 or later, 17 of the 30 are compulsory courses set by the province and 13 are courses the student chooses; for students who started earlier it is 18 and 12.
On top of the credits, every student needs at least 40 hours of volunteering (the province calls it community involvement) and must meet the literacy requirement, which for most students means passing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test.
Students who started Grade 9 in 2020 or later need at least 2 of their credits online. A parent can ask the school board for an exemption from this. Students who started Grade 9 in 2024 or later also need one technology course in Grade 9 or 10, and students who started in 2025 or later must score at least 70% on the money modules in the Grade 10 Career Studies course, with two tries.
University: six Grade 12 university courses
Every Ontario university asks for the diploma plus six Grade 12 courses at the university level (code ending in U) or the university and college level (code ending in M). One of the six must be Grade 12 university English. Each program then names the courses it needs on top: engineering, for example, usually asks for calculus, chemistry and physics.
The university ranks applicants by the average of those six marks. That average, not the diploma, is what decides most offers, and it is often well above the minimum the school prints. Our guide to the top 6 average shows how each university picks the six.
College: the diploma and usually Grade 12 English
Ontario colleges offer one-year certificates, two and three-year diplomas and some four-year degrees. Most diploma programs ask for the high school diploma and a Grade 12 English at the college (C) or university (U) level. Of the 850 two-year Ontario college diploma programs on this site (three-year advanced diplomas not counted), 721 list Grade 12 English among the courses they require, 17 more at the French-language colleges list Grade 12 French, and 404 list a math course.
Many college programs have no published average at all: meeting the course requirements is enough, though popular programs such as nursing fill up and choose the strongest marks.
A trade: paid training that can start in high school
An apprentice learns a trade mostly on the job, working for an employer who sponsors them, with blocks of classes at a college. An electrician's apprenticeship in Ontario is 9,000 hours, of which 7,950 are paid work on the job.
Students can begin in Grade 11 or 12 through the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program, earning high school credits in a work placement in a trade. They need to be at least 15 years old and have at least 14 credits. Ask the school's guidance office or co-op teacher.
What to ask at your child's school
Ask the guidance counsellor three things: which Grade 11 and 12 courses keep the most routes open for your child, whether the school offers the youth apprenticeship program, co-op or a Specialist High Skills Major, and when applications are due. The deadline calendar on this site has every Ontario university date, including the extra steps some programs ask for.
Choosing a lower course level in Grade 11 is not a dead end, but it can close a route that later takes an extra semester to reopen. It is easier to keep a door open than to reopen it.
Where to go next
Sources
- Ontario: high school graduation requirements
- McMaster University: undergraduate calendar 2026 (admission requirements)
- Niagara College: Computer Programming admission requirements (an example of a college diploma)
- Skilled Trades Ontario: Electrician, Construction and Maintenance (309A)
- Ontario: Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program
General information, not financial or career advice. Pay figures in the career tiles come from each career page, where the full sources are listed.