faq.jpg (5009 bytes) Frequently Asked Questions

Membership Services answers your questions.

 

What are the prerequisites for entrance into the Principal’s Qualification Program?

For admission to the Principal’s Qualification Program an applicant must:

  • hold an acceptable university degree
  • hold a Certificate of Qualification or Interim Certificate of Qualification
  • be qualified to teach three divisions including the Intermediate division
  • provide evidence – certified by an academic supervisory officer – of at least five years of successful teaching experience in a school providing elementary or secondary education.

In addition, the applicant must hold or provide evidence of one of:

  1. a Specialist or Honour Specialist qualification and successful completion of at least half the courses required to qualify for an acceptable master’s degree, or
  2. two Specialist or Honour Specialist qualifications, or
  3. a master’s degree or doctorate that is acceptable to the College
  4. successful completion of enough graduate university courses to qualify for a master’s degree acceptable to the College.

My Interim Certificate of Qualification is set to expire in two months. What do I do?

You must either convert or extend your certificate. If you have acquired one year of successful teaching experience since you first received your Ontario teaching certificate, by regulation you must apply to have that certificate converted to a Certificate of Qualification.

To do this, you require one year (10 months) or 200 days of relevant successful teaching experience in Ontario. It must have been acquired in classes/courses you were certified to teach or for which a Temporary Letter of Approval was granted. The experience must have been gained after the issue date of your original certificate and verified as successful by an appropriate supervisory officer. Please visit our web site at www.oct.ca to obtain the necessary conversion forms.

If you do not have 200 days of successful teaching experience since you first received your Ontario teaching certificate, you must extend your certificate. You may extend a certificate if you have proof of a job offer that requires membership in good standing in the College. You must include the original of a current written job offer along with a cover letter requesting extension prior to expiry.

I completed an Additional Qualification course in early August. Why did it take until the end of September to receive written acknowledgement of this? As a result of these timelines, I’ve missed the entrance to a desired Additional Qualification course.

Ontario faculties of education automatically provide the College with your name when you have successfully completed an AQ. The faculties cannot submit this notification – known as their "recommendation" – until the final marks are tabulated. The College issues a letter acknowledging the successful completion of the Additional Qualification once we have received this recommendation, but until we get it we can’t issue the acknowledgement. We understand the inconvenience this can create and we continue to work with the universities to streamline the reporting process.

How can I convert my Interim HSA into an Honour Specialist?

You need a letter signed by a supervisory officer on school board letterhead confirming that you have completed at least two years of successful teaching experience in your subject in the appropriate division.

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