Sports
Get a jump-start on your career
A Specialist High Skills Major allows you to focus on a career area that interests you while you earn your high school diploma. If you want to build your career in Canada’s growing sports industry, then the sports major will appeal to you. No matter what education you plan to pursue after high school—apprenticeship, college, university or workplace training—a sports major can help you focus on a future career.
Profile of the sports sector
Canada’s sports industry is growing. Dozens of cities now have professional sports teams and franchises. In Ontario, there are over 25 professional teams1 in sports ranging from hockey to lacrosse to soccer. The Canadian sports sector generates around $8 billion a year, according to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Over half of all Canadian children are involved in organized sports, and 57 per cent of parents are involved in some way with sports, as participants, spectators, coaches, referees, sports administrators or organizers, or members of sports organizations. The number of adult Canadians involved in amateur sport as spectators reached 9.2 million in 2005. A 1997 survey reported that 59,300 Canadians were employed as coaches, trainers, referees and athletes.4 Almost one in five Canadians aged 15 and older reported belonging to a club, a local community league, or a local or regional amateur sport organization.
A Specialist High Skills Major in sports offers:
- high school courses in grade 11 and 12 tailored to the career you want to pursue
- the chance to work with industry leaders and experience cutting-edge training in sports
- experience working in the sector you're interested in, while you're still in high school
- skills and work habits that are required in the sports sector, using tools connected with the Ontario Skills Passport
- recognition on your high school diploma
The sports major includes the following five components:
- A bundle of nine grade 11 and 12 credits that comprises:
- four sports major credits that provide sector-specific knowledge and skills
- three other required credits from the Ontario curriculum, in English, mathematics, and a choice of business studies, science or social sciences and humanities
- two co-operative education credits tied to the sector
- Seven sector-recognized certifications and/or training courses/programs (four compulsory and a choice of three electives)
- Experiential learning and career exploration activities within the sector
- Reach ahead experiences connected with the student’s postsecondary plans
- Development of Essential Skills and work habits required in the sector, and documentation of them using the OSP
Sector-recognized certification and training
As part of the sports major, you will earn seven certifications, including the following four which are compulsory:
- standard first id
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Level C
- Automated External Defibrillation (AED)
- generic instruction about the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)
Future career paths for sports majors
For sports majors, possible careers include:
- apprenticeship – special events coordinator
- college – arena manager, broadcasting sports director, broadcast technician, film or video camera operator, recreation facility manager
- university – athletic therapist, health and physical education teacher, kinesiologist
- entry level workplace – athlete, coach, fitness/sports instructor
Get more information
Call the guidance department at the following schools that offer the program: