An AQ (Additional Qualification) course expands your leadership and subject knowledge in the divisions you are currently qualified to teach in (i.e., Special Education, Librarianship, Guidance & Career Education).

ABQ courses (Additional Basic Qualifications) allow you to teach in new divisions and/or subject areas (i.e., Primary, Junior, Intermediate or Senior).

OCT defines transitional certificates in the following way:

The Transitional Certificate is designed for teacher candidates who have successfully completed at least 30 postsecondary credits and 40 practicum days of their initial teacher education program. Transitional Certificates are valid for 18 months with the possibility of a one-time, six-month extension.

The Multi-Session Transitional Certificate is designed for teacher candidates who have completed the first session of their multi-session teacher education program. Multi-Session Transitional Certificates are valid for six years with the possibility of a one-time, one-year extension.

Transitional and Multi-Session Transitional Certificates are only available to teacher candidates who are enrolled in an accredited Ontario teacher education program. Both certificates require membership in good standing to remain valid.

Primary Division

This division allows you to teach Grade Kindergarten to Grade 3. It is a one-session Additional Basic Qualifications course to become qualified in this division as a current, Ontario College of Teachers certified teacher.

Junior Division

This division allows you to teach Grade 4 to Grade 6. It is a one-session Additional Basic Qualifications course to become qualified in this division as a current, Ontario College of Teachers certified teacher.

Intermediate Division

An ABQ Intermediate course would licenses you to teach grades 7-10. In an elementary school, or mixed high school you can teach a grade 7 and 8 class, all subjects just like ABQ Primary or ABQ Junior do for lower grades. When you enter teaching in a secondary school you can only teach the subject for which you have the qualification. Here is the link to the ABQ Intermediate courses we offer: https://coursesforteachers.ca/on/courses?c=5

Senior Division

An ABQ Senior Division course will licence you to teach Grade 11 and 12, but only in the specified subject. You must have undergraduate courses in the subject area to take the ABQ. Here is the link to the ABQ Senior courses we offer https://coursesforteachers.ca/on/courses?c=6

Technological Education

This course will allow you to teach a single technological education subject for Grade 9 and Grade 10 or Grade 11 and Grade 12. These qualifications require Work Experience in the industry to be eligible. You can find a full list of our Technological Education Qualifications and their requirements here:

All Intermediate, Senior, and Technological Education ABQs are subject specific. You must have undergraduate courses (for Intermediate or Senior ABQs) or required work experience (for Tech Ed ABQs only) in the subject area to take the ABQ. The idea behind ABQs is that you know the subject area from your undergraduate courses, and your ABQs teach you how to teach that subject.

You may register in an AQ/ABQ only if you have completed all the components of your teacher education program, including the practicum. If you have completed your program requirements and are waiting for OCT to update your record to a full Certificate of Qualification, you can be granted a conditional acceptance to an AQ or ABQ. Your OCT record will be updated with your AQ/ABQ once you have a full Certificate of Qualification.

Those in the middle of multi-session programs are not eligible to enroll until they have completed the entire program.

Complementary courses may fulfill terms and conditions on a Certificate of Qualification. The Complementary Education/Schedule C courses can be found under One Session Qualifications. 

Teachers with this condition on their OCT Certificate are required to fill out this Consent Form for fulfilling Complementary Education conditions and send it to OCT at info@oct.ca. 

Courses that you complete to satisfy this OCT condition, will not appear on your OCT Certificate of Qualifications.

If your OCT condition requires you to complete an Intermediate or Senior ABQ. You can view the complete list of Intermediate ABQ’s and Senior ABQ’s on our website.

Log into your SOLUS account at my.queensu.ca

From the menu on the left, select 'Manage Classes'

Select 'Drop Classes'

Select the course(s) you would like to drop

Click 'Next'

Select 'Drop classes'

A refund will be issued to your credit card within 7-10 business days.

1. before the midpoint of the course, you will be refunded 100% of your course fee.
2. after the midpoint, before the end of the course, you will be refunded 50% of your course fee.

You can find the refund deadline dates on our website here.

We offer a $200 rebate toward an AQ or ABQ course for Queen's Associate Teachers and Hosts. To be eligible, you must have hosted a Queen's B.Ed/D.Ed/ConEd/ITT teacher candidate or have coordinated the associate teacher program at your school within the current year or the last three years. You can fill out the Associate Teacher Rebate form here.

To access your online course, you will need a browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, which are freely available. Safari 5+ is also supported.

• Get Chrome
• Get Firefox

A few days prior to the course start date, you will receive instructions on how to log in to our online learning platform called 'OnQ'.

To access your course in OnQ, click on the 'Select a Course' icon; this icon looks like a three-by-three grid on the top-right of the page. This will open a list of your available courses. Selecting one will take you to the homepage of that course.

After you log in to a course, you will see welcome messages in the 'Announcements' section. Email communication takes place outside of onQ in your Queen's email account. All other communication from your instructor takes place inside onQ using the 'Announcements', 'Discussion' and/or, the 'Assignments' sections.

Your NetID is your unique identification number at Queen's. You will use it to access online services and courses at Queen's. Information on how to get your NetID will be emailed to you once you have been accepted into a course.

You will use your NetID to access the SOLUS Student Centre where you can update your address, order a transcript, drop a course, and get your tax receipt.

If you know your NetID but have forgotten your password, call ITS at 613-533-6666 for a password reset.

You can access your Queen's email through your course located in OnQ. On the course navigation bar, click on 'Office 365'; this will bring you to the login page. You will then enter your Queen's email address [yournetid@queensu.ca] and your NetID password. Under 'Apps', click 'Outlook'. These credentials are also used to access your course and all other online services at Queen's.

If you are not a member of the Ontario College of Teachers and never plan to be, you are still eligible to register for an online AQ/ABQ course. During the online application, you will identify as a non-OCT member. Under this condition, the Continuing Teacher Education Office will not report successful completion of your course to the Ontario College of Teachers now, or at any time in the future.

If you wish to receive recognition from the Ontario College of Teachers for a course you have taken as a non-OCT member, you will be required to register in, and complete the same course again, in accordance with the policies and fees in effect at that time.

To enhance cybersecurity protection, Queen's University has introduced multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all student accounts. This means you will be required to provide your NetID and password as well as a second method to verify your identity when accessing your SOLUS account. Visit IT Services to learn more.

• STEP 1 - On your mobile device, install the Microsoft Authenticator App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The Microsoft Authenticator App is the recommended method for MFA.
• STEP 2 - Visit the MFA Registration Site and follow the on-screen instructions.

After submitting your AQ/ABQ course application, please send us proof of your OSAP application to cedmail@queensu.ca so we can enroll you into the course.

Please complete and return a Pre-assessment Request Form and email it along with your undergraduate transcript(s) to cedmail@queensu.ca

Pre-assessments are free and are generally completed in 3-5 business days. Please note that there is no application fee and applying directly will have your documents assessed quicker.

OCT defines one year of teaching experience as 194 days of teaching.

Teaching experience must be verified by the Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent of your school. If you teach in a private school, your teaching experience must be verified by the Ministry Official appointed for your school (i.e., Education Officer).

If your school is not governed by a Superintendent or Ministry Official, the appropriate person to sign the form is the person your principal reports to.

A Combined Honour Specialist is the completion of two separate Honour Specialist courses. To be eligible for a Combined Honour Specialist, you'll need to have 20.0 full-year courses in your undergraduate degree including 14.0 full-year undergraduate level courses across two subject areas, with no less than 6.0 full-year courses in either subject.

Example: 8.0 in History and 6.0 in Math or, 7.0 in History and 7.0 in Math.

You can take the Honour Specialist courses in the same session, or in separate sessions. We will report completion of the Combined Honour Specialist to Ontario College of Teachers as the courses are successfully completed. A Confirmation of Teaching Experience Form is required for only one of the subject areas.

If you are applying for a Combined Honour Specialist, please email us at cedmail@queensu.ca for more information and assistance.