CONTACT:
SEO@Ontario.ca
Youth and Outreach
Youth and New Professionals Secretariat
HROntario
Ministry of Government Services

Thank you for your interest in the Ontario Public Service.
The purpose of this guide is to help you submit an application for summer employment with the Ontario Public Service and to familiarize you with the job advertisement and online application form.
Please ensure that you review and understand the following program and eligibility information prior to submitting an application. This information is available on the Summer Employment Opportunities Program website and includes:

Summer Employment Eligibility
 What’s New for 2013

Key Dates

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions
Cover letters and resumes are not required or accepted in order to submit your application for summer employment. Instead, we ask that you fill out our online application form and answer questions about your skills, experiences and interests. We determine your eligibility and potential suitability based on the information you provide so please ensure that it is accurate.
Please disregard any references to resumes or cover letters on the Summer
Employment job advertisement and or on the online application form. This is standardized text that appears on all Ontario Public Service job ad postings but does not apply for the summer student positions.

There are three posting periods targeted to different student audiences. Ensure you apply to the posting period that is aligned with your current student status.

Posting Period 1: February 15 th to March 1st, 2013
Target Audience: Post-Secondary students

Posting Period 2: March 8 th to March 22 nd , 2013
Target Audience: Post-Secondary and High School students

Posting Period 3: March 29 th to April 12 th , 2013
Target Audience: High School students

Student job advertisements include these six sections:

Placement Details, Summer Employment Program Information and
Applicant Resources

Detailed Position Breakdown

Work Description and Qualifications

Pre-Screening Questions

Additional Information and How to Apply Instructions

Disclaimer Information
Each of these sections are described in detail below.
Apply By Date – located at the top left of the job advertisement, this is the last day that applications will be accepted.
Position Title
– located toward the top centre of the ad is the name of the position; all summer student positions will start with “STUDENT-”.
Figure 1 - Image of the Placement Details, Summer
Employment Program Information and Applicant
Resources Section of the Summer Employment Job
Advertisement.
Placement Information
– located underneath the position title, this section includes position information including the placement ministries, cities, number of positions, salary levels etc.

Target Audience
– located underneath the placement information, this section indicates whether the job is targeted to high school, post-secondary students or both.
Applicant Resources
– located underneath the target audience, this section provides information about the Summer Employment program including application details and information that applicants are encouraged to read and understand prior to submitting an application.
The Detailed Position
Breakdown includes the total number of positions available by ministry including the address and city. Positions located in Ontario
Provincial Parks with the
Ministry of Natural
Resources include a link to the Ontario Parks map as well as details on
Figure 2 - Image of the Detailed Position Breakdown Section on the Summer Employment Website accommodation availability listed after each park address.
The work description section contains three parts: the work description, the mandatory eligibility requirements and the qualifications section. Each of these sections is explained here.
Work Description - outlines the duties and responsibilities of the position.
Mandatory Eligibility Requirements – describes program requirements such as specific age restrictions, security screening and bilingual skill requirements (if applicable). All applicants that meet the general eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply.
Qualifications – lists the skills and knowledge required for the job. You must

have demonstrated these skills in your previous school work, paid work and/or volunteer experiences.
You will be provided with an opportunity to describe your qualifications in your online application via open text answers and responses to the pre-screening questions.
Important : High
Figure 3 - Image of the Work Description and
Qualifications sections.
school positions posted March 29 – April 13 are primarily geared towards first-time job experience positions and require students with only general transferable skills.
Each job advertisement includes the list of pre-screening questions that you will be required to answer when you submit your online application. Questions may be related to:

Your field of study

Computer software knowledge

Level of Education

Location Preference

Ministry Preference

Program Eligibility Requirements
When you apply online you will be asked to describe your qualifications, skills and experiences. There may also be other types of questions depending on the position that you are applying to related to the qualifications for that position.

Answer options are made available on the online application form that you can access by clicking
“Apply Online” towards the top right hand side of the job advertisement.
Your answers to these questions will determine your eligibility for Summer
Employment and help us to understand your skill, ability,
Figure 4 - Image of the Pre-Screening Questions section of the
Summer Employment Job Advertisement.
knowledge and experience relative to the placement position. Prior to submitting your application, please double check your answers to these questions and ensure that your responses are accurate.
The Additional Information section includes specific details about the:

Address
– includes the number of positions available at each work location. This listing is similar to the Detailed Position Breakdown but it does not include the details broken down by ministry.

Compensation Group and Schedule – indicates the compensation group of the position. Most Summer Employment positions are part of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

Category
– indicates the posting category of the placement position / job advertisement. Most Summer Employment opportunities will start with “Student Summer Employment Opportunities”.

Posted On
– indicates the date that the job advertisement was posted.

There are seven pieces of information in the How to
Apply section that you need to know before submitting your application including:
1. You must apply online to be considered for summer employment opportunities.
2. Your application must describe how you meet the eligibility criteria, skills, knowledge and experience. This information is used to determine who will be invited for an interview.
Figure 5 - Image of the Additional Information and How to Apply sections on the Summer Employment job advertisement.
3. All summer jobs require a minimum age of 15 years old on the first day of employment. Some positions are restricted to students aged 15-24 years or 15-29 years for persons with a disability, as of the first day of employment (between May and July).
4. You must be a resident of Ontario.
5. You must be eligible to work in Canada.
6. You must be enrolled in a secondary or post-secondary institution
(currently or for the fall semester), or within 6 months of graduation upon the first day of employment e.g. if a student graduated in December 2012, they could apply for a summer student position in the Ontario Public
Service up until June 2013.

7. If you require accommodation to apply, or to complete this application form, please contact us at SEO@Ontario.ca
.
If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact
SEO@Ontario.ca
.
You can start your application by clicking on the “Apply Online” link located to the top right hand side, or, bottom centre of the job advertisement.
Every job advertisement contains a general disclaimer. Please ensure that you read and understand the disclaimer before submitting your application as you will be required to disclose all pertinent prior employment information when you submit your online application.
The application deadline (apply-by date) is also listed directly underneath the disclaimer notice; the job advertisement will no longer be available on the Ontario
Public Service Careers website after this date.

The Summer Employment online application form includes these four sections:

Job Placement Information and Your Personal Information

Applicant Profile Questions

Additional Questions (Pre-Screening Questions)

Privacy / Collection of Information Consent and Submit Button
Each of these sections are described in detail below.
Prior to submitting your online application be sure to take a moment to review the Job
Information to verify that you are applying to the correct job advertisement. Job
Information details include:

Position
– indicates the
Summer
Employment position that you are applying to.
Remember, all
Summer
Employment positions start with
“STUDENT-“ in the position title.
Figure 6 - Image of the Job Placement information and Your
Personal information sections on the Summer Employment online application form.


Ministry – indicates the ministries that are available for placement for the position. Most positions will be listed as “Various Ministries”.

Job ID – indicates the unique Job ID number of the job advertisement.
Please note the Job ID number and be sure to quote it on all correspondence. If you are called for an interview you can visit the
Ontario.ca/Careers website and enter this Job ID number into the search field on the main page to check the status or to generate another copy of the job advertisement.

Apply-by date – indicates the last day that you will be able to submit your online application for the position indicated.
Your personal contact information must be correct in order for us to contact you.
Please ensure that you provide the following mandatory details accurately:

First Name – include your first “legal” name.

Last Name
– include your last “legal” name.

Address 1 – include your home address. This may be your current or anticipated summer address. Please note that all candidates must be residents of Ontario and provide an Ontario address to be eligible for
Summer Employment.

City
– include the city associated to your address.

Phone (home) – include your home or primary telephone number so that we can contact you during the recruitment process.
The following fields are not mandatory in order to submit your online application; however you may be required to provide this information if applicable:

WIN ID – include your WIN ID number if you are a previous or current
Ontario government employee. If you are not a previous or current
Ontario government employee, please disregard this field.

Address 2
– include your secondary address if applicable.


Country
– include the country associated to your address; it will list
“Canada” by default. Please note that all candidates must be residents of
Ontario and provide an Ontario address in order to be eligible for Summer
Employment.

Postal Code – include your postal code.

Other Phone Number – include your secondary phone number if applicable.

Email Address – include your email address as managers may choose to contact candidates by email during the recruitment process. If you provide your email address you will also receive an automated email to confirm that your application has been successfully received.
Your email address must be accurate in order to receive the confirmation email. You will not be added to a distribution list by providing your email address.
Please ensure that you double-check your personal information for accuracy before submitting the online application form as hiring managers will use this information to contact applicants during the recruitment process.
There are five questions / fields that you must fill out as part of the Application
Profile section including:

Please tell us how you first heard about this job – indicate how you found out about Summer Employment with the Ontario Public Service.
You can select only one value from the drop-down list, but depending on the value that you select you may be prompted to specify additional details.

Field of study
– indicate up to 3 current or past fields of study. You can select multiple values in the list by holding down the CONTROL KEY while clicking on your answers.


Level of education
– indicate the level of education that you are currently completing at the time of application or have recently completed. You can choose only one response from the drop-down list.

Computer software / languages
– indicate the computer software / languages that you have at an intermediate level.
You can select an unlimited number of values in the list by holding down the
CONTROL KEY while clicking on your answers.
Figure 7 - Image of the Applicant Profile Questions
Section on the Summer Employment online application form.

Ministry preferences – indicate up to three ministry preferences from the list provided. You can select multiple values in the list by holding down the
CONTROL KEY while clicking on your answers. If you do not have a ministry preference, please select “No Preference” to be considered for all ministries listed on the job advertisement.
The online application form will ask you to select up to a maximum of five city / location placement preferences as listed on the job advertisement from the dropdown list provided.

If the job advertisement indicates more than 5 cities, you can only select your top
5 preferences. If the job ad has only 1 city, there will only be 1 option for you to select.
If you submit multiple applications to the same job advertisement your most recent application will be considered.
Your responses to the questions in the
Additional Questions section are used to determine your eligibility for a
Summer Employment position and to match your responses to find the best fit for your knowledge, skills and experience.
These questions are mandatory and you will not be able to submit the form without providing an answer.
Figure 8 - Image of the Additional Questions section on the
Summer Employment online application form.
Eligibility questions include:

Are you a resident of Ontario?

Are you legally entitled to work in Canada?

Are you 15 years of age or older?


Are you either 15-24 years of age (or 15-29 years of age for a person with a disability)?

Please indicate your Student Status:

Please indicate when you will be available to start work:

If you are considered for a job that requires a personal security screening check, will you consent to the screening?
There are five skill, knowledge, ability and experience based questions on the
Summer Employment online application form. Your response can be in either list or paragraph format and each text box response field has a 2000 character limit.
The information requested includes:

Describe why you are interested in this position – describe your interest in the position; your response may be similar to a cover letter.

Describe all relevant skills, knowledge and/or experience
(volunteer / paid work) which would contribute to your success in this role
– connect your key skills, knowledge and/or experience to demonstrate how you would be a good candidate for the position.

Continue to describe all relevant skills, knowledge and/or experience (volunteer / pain work) which would contribute to your success in this role
– additional space to continue your answer.

Describe your key accomplishments and / or academic achievements
– identify key accomplishments and successes, whether personal, academic, through previous employment or similar.

Provide alternate contact information e.g. a secondary email address or phone number or enter “nil” – include any additional contact information that you would like us to know about. If you do not have any additional contact inf ormation to provide, indicate “NIL” in the field.

To successfully submit an online application you must review and consent to the collection of your confidential information.
Please review the disclosure statement carefully and then select the check-box next to the statement to indicate acceptance. Figure 9 - Image of the Privacy / Collection of Information Consent and
Submit Button.
If you select the
“Remember my Information” box, the online application form will retain the information completed under the “Personal Information” section for any future applications submitted using the same computer.
Finally, t o submit your application click the “Apply” button towards the bottom of the screen. If you provided your correct email address in the email address field you will receive an automated confirmation email if your application was received successfully. If you provided your email address in the email address field but do not receive the confirmation email, please check your spam folder and settings prior to contacting us. Kindly note that you will not receive a copy of your completed application as part of the confirmation email.
Links are also available to the Public Service of Ontario Act and the Ministry of
Government Services Act towards the bottom of the online application form.

Prior to applying to a summer student job advertisement please familiarize yourself with the detailed rating scale. You will be prompted to provide information within the Pre-Screening Questions section of the online application form using this four point scale:

Basic

Limited

Intermediate

Extensive
Sample Question: Knowledge and experience conducting research and performing analysis (i.e. environmental scan, quantitative, qualitative, statistical analysis etc.); compiling, synthesizing and summarizing information.
 Select “ Basic ” if you have limited course work (knowledge) and/or no experience (paid work or volunteer).
 Select “ Limited ” if you have performed these tasks briefly, for example taking a few courses related to the subject (knowledge) and /or conducting research for a small scale school/work/volunteer project
(experience).
 Select “ Intermediate ” if you have performed these tasks occasionally, for example a specialized focus through course work with some practical application (knowledge) and/or an on-going project or multiple short-term projects for school/work/volunteer (experience).

Select “ Extensive ” if you have performed these tasks regularly, for example a specialized focus through course work with extensive practical application (knowledge) and/or on-going and multiple largescale projects for school/work/volunteer (experience).

Sample Question: Experience performing customer service and front counter duties (e.g. assisting/responding to public in person/phone inquiries, performing cashier and accurate cash handling duties, handling customer service complaints to successful resolution)
 Select “ Basic ” if you have never performed these tasks.
 Select “
Limited
” if you have performed these tasks briefly, for example assisting for a weekend event (fair or fundraising event).
 Select “
Intermediate
” if you have performed these tasks occasionally, for example a regular part-time retail position or volunteer work with a few shifts per month.
 Select “
Extensive
” if you have performed these tasks regularly, for example a regular part-time retail position or volunteer work with a few shifts per week.
When self-assessing your level, use the descriptions/examples provided to determine where you fall within the rating scale. Rate yourself based on the standard student-level criteria provided as the benchmarks for the knowledge and experience questions asked on the job ad.
Remember to assess yourself truthfully against the scale!