No high school diploma?  Missing a necessary course to be able to apply to a college program?  You have many options – including the option to be granted your OSSD after completion of a college program (see note below).

The chart below shows 4 different ways to get to college (the fifth purple pathway is a pathway to university).  Perhaps the most well known route is the Ontario Secondary School Diploma pathway (red).  But it is not the only pathway available to adults.

At ESU, we help people down two other pathways to college: the Academic and Career Entrance Program pathway (yellow) and the High School Equivalency Certificate via the Canadian Adult Education Credential (GED replacement)  pathway (green). (Note:  please see our CAEC – the GED Replacement page)

NOTE:  Good news!  Now, learners that earn college entrance via upgrading (without an OSSD and without the high school prerequiste courses) are eligible to also get their OSSD on completion of a college diploma or degree program! On July 28, 2023, the Government of Ontario released Policy/Program Memo 132 on the subject of Prior Learning and Recognition for Mature Students – Revised Mandatory Requirements that announces this change.