On-the-job training and your logbook

Most of this apprenticeship is the work you are already doing. Of the 4,500-hour benchmark, 3,720 hours are on the job, around 83 per cent. You are paid for all of it.

What counts

The work that develops the skills in the Training Standard counts. That includes:

• supporting people with adaptive skills
• person-directed planning
• positive behaviour support
• health, safety and medication routines, where they are part of your role
• building relationships with families and the community

Ordinary shifts count. You do not need to be doing something special or set aside for training. What matters is that you get enough variety of work to demonstrate every skill set. Sometimes that means arranging time in a different program or with a different team for a while.

How sign-off works

The Training Standard logbook is issued by Skilled Trades Ontario and lists the skill sets you have to demonstrate. Your trainer watches you do the work and signs the relevant section when they are satisfied you are competent at it. You are responsible for keeping the logbook up to date.

That signature is a judgement about competence, not attendance. It means you can do the skill reliably. You still need the 3,720 hours. Keep your hours record as carefully as your logbook, in case Skilled Trades Ontario asks for it.

If you work for more than one employer

You can still complete your on-the-job training. If you work for more than one employer in developmental services, a qualified trainer at your other workplace can sign off individual skills as you demonstrate them.

Your official sponsoring employer stays in charge. They confirm your overall competency and sign the Skill Set Completion documentation. Once they submit that form, they accept full responsibility for your workplace training, wherever the hours were done.

If this applies to you, talk to your sponsor and Skilled Trades Ontario early to confirm how it will be handled.

Making it work in practice

The apprentices who finish comfortably tend to do the same few things.

They meet their trainer on a regular schedule rather than when someone remembers. A short monthly conversation beats a long annual one.

They keep notes between meetings: what they did, what they handled well, what they want more practice at. It makes the sign-off conversation concrete instead of a memory test.

They look ahead at the skill sets they have not touched yet and ask for the work that would develop them, rather than waiting for it to arrive.

They notice that one piece of work often shows several skill sets at once, and say so.

A mentor outside your agency

The Real Xchange runs a mentoring program for the DSW Apprenticeship Program. You can apply to have a mentor, or to be one. A mentor is not your trainer and does not sign your logbook. They are someone further along who has done what you are doing.

If progress stalls

It happens, usually because the trainer's time gets squeezed or the apprentice never gets the variety of work they need. Both can be fixed. Raise it early with your supervisor, and if that does not move it, with the person who signed for the sponsor.