Additional Qualifications

Durham District School Board is an approved provider of Additional Qualification courses for certified members of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT), in good standing. Additional Qualification courses allow teachers to focus on continuous improvement by expanding their knowledge, practices and instructional leadership skills.


How to register for courses

Registration for courses will open approximately 6 weeks before the posted start date. Generally, the following timeline is adhered to:

Spring (Feb - May) - Registration opens mid-December

Summer (July) - Registration opens mid-May

Fall (Sept - Dec) - Registration opens early August

To register for AQ courses offered by the DDSB, please click on the menu option in the header bar above labelled “Courses". All courses open for registration for upcoming sessions will have a clickable ‘Enroll’ button. Please click on that link and complete the registration form for each course you wish to take. We require a minimum of 5 registered and fully paid participants for a course to run.

Course requirements

All of DDSB's AQ courses will require a commitment of approximately 125 working hours as mandated by OCT. Courses do not carry degree credit and grades are not assigned; final evaluation is offered on a "recommended/not recommended" basis. Courses are offered in both online and hybrid (blend of asynchronous online and scheduled, synchronous online and/or in-person) formats. The delivery format of each course will be communicated in the course description. After successful completion of the course, candidate information will be forwarded to the Ontario College of Teachers to be entered on their Certificate of Qualification. This process may take up to 6 weeks to be reflected on your OCT depending on the time of year and the speed at which the college is able to process updates.

Course Timelines

Our Spring 2025 session will take place over the course of 12 school weeks (there is no expectation of course work being completed over the March Break). Summer courses are offered in a condensed format running for 4 weeks in the month of July, beginning the first full week of the month. Any courses that require either face-to-face or scheduled, synchronous sessions will have the dates/times communicated to participants via the course outline. Please pay attention to these dates and times as they are part of the required 125 hours required for successful completion of the course.