Learning and Training

OACAS Learning creates and curates learning and training opportunities that support progressive, best practices among Ontario’s child welfare professionals. Through course offerings, library guides, and connecting learners to helpful research tools like peer-reviewed journals, we are the central source for the child welfare sector’s learning needs. Learning opportunities exist for all staff, including frontline workers, supervisors, managers, back office staff, and executives, as well as volunteers, caregivers, and stakeholders from related sectors (for example, the violence against women sector).

To see the full range of courses available from OACAS Learning, view our course catalogue.

Note: Registration is only available to eligible individuals (see below).

OACAS Learning is proud to offer the foundational training for frontline child protection workers—the Reimagined Child Welfare Pathway to Authorization Series—which supports agencies in their efforts to onboard and authorize new workers. (Authorization is the process in child welfare that allows frontline staff to do certain jobs or tasks designated under the guiding legislation, the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017.) For leaders at all levels, we offer a suite of learning opportunities.

OACAS Learning also maintains the Ontario license for SAFE (Structured Analysis Family Evaluation), which is a home-study methodology, and PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education), which is a competency-based training model for the development and support of resource (foster, kinship and customary care, and adoption) families. These tools serve to enhance the quality of care provided for children in resource families.

To further support the needs of Ontario’s children and youth, we deliver the free, bilingual, self-study eLearning course Trauma Informed Care. It aims to prepare foster, group, kin, adoptive, and customary caregivers to support the needs of children and youth in their care who have been impacted by trauma. Find out more about the Trauma Informed Care course, including how to register, here.

Questions about the opportunities offered by OACAS Learning? Contact our team using the myOACAS Support Centre.

Who is eligible to learn through OACAS?

  • Employees and resource parents working with Children’s Aid Societies or Indigenous Child and Family Well-Being Agencies
  • Resource parents of Licensed Children’s Residential care (also called Outside Paid Providers/Resources)
  • Individuals who plan to adopt through private adoption practitioners
  • Stakeholders and employees of other family serving agencies (e.g., Violence Against Women/Intimate Partner Violence agencies)

For those who are interested in OACAS’ learning opportunities, and who are not listed above or who are from a jurisdiction outside of Ontario, please contact the myOACAS Support Centre for additional information.

Create a myOACAS Learning account

Account creation for eligible individuals requires pre-approval through one’s organization and/or the OACAS Learning team. Select the appropriate button to create your myOACAS Learning account.