Student Trainees and Learners

A placement coordinator at TMU is the person who arranges, coordinates or administers the arrangement of practicum experience placements for student trainee. In some cases, the placement coordinator may also serve as the placement supervisor, adviser, site supervisor and/or practicum supervisor. For a full description, please refer to the definition above.

As outlined by TMU’s Office of the Legal Counsel and Board Secretariat, TMU placement coordinators are required to follow these steps prior to the placement start date:

1. Provide the Letter to Placement Employers (external link)  to the placement employer to complete. Once it has been completed, provide it to the student trainee to review and sign.
2. Provide the Student Declaration of Understanding (external link)  to the student trainee to sign.
3. Send both the completed and signed Letter of Placement Employers and Student Declaration of Understanding to practicumwsibform@torontomu.ca.
4. Determine whether MTCU or TMU will be providing the insurance coverage to the student. 
   • If MTCU is providing insurance coverage, determine whether the placement employer is covered by the WSIA or not. This information can be found on the completed Letter to Placement Employers. If the placement employer is not covered by the WSIA, the number of students that are not covered will be collected quarterly. 
   • If TMU is providing the insurance coverage, notify TMU’s risk and insurance officer at 416-979-5000, ext. 553772 or insurance@torontomu.ca to inform them of the number of students that are not covered by MTCU and require insurance.
5. Provide a copy of the Pre-placement Risk Assessment Checklist (external link)  to the placement employer to complete.
   • This pre-placement tool helps Toronto Metropolitan University exercise due diligence and ensure that student trainees are not placed in unsafe working environments. It supports the placement employer in an  evaluation of the potential risks and safety practices of placement employer.
   • Note: Only one checklist per academic program per external placement employer is required.. It is also possible to adjust how frequently this checklist is administered and the number of sections requiring completion depending on the placement. For example, for a program that is offered repeatedly by the same employer, the checklist may only need to be completed once a year.
6. Request that the placement employer complete the Safety Orientation Checklist for Students Working at External Placement Employers (external link) , used to provide health and safety information to a student prior to work. This is only required if the placement employer does not have their own orientation checklist.
7. In the case that a student trainee has been involved in an incident or injury, immediately upon learning of the incident, the placement coordinator should follow the steps below under “Reporting an incident or injury”.

As outlined by TMU's Office of the Legal Counsel and Board Secretariat, students trainee should:

1. Complete the  (google doc) Student Declaration of Understanding (external link) , sign it and return it to your placement coordinator.
2. Complete TMU’s mandatory online safety training.
   To access the training:
   • Follow these enrollment instructions.
   • Select “EHS Training for External Placement Students” in D2L and complete the module.

3. Attend any site-specific training required by the placement employer.

4. In the event of a workplace incident or injury during the placement, notify your external placement supervisor and the TMU placement coordinator.

Eligibility

Any post-secondary student trainee completing an unpaid work placement offered by an Ontario publicly assisted post-secondary institution, including TMU, has workplace insurance coverage paid by the MTCU.

Note: The MTCU pays the WSIB for the cost of any benefits paid by the board under the WSIA. The MTCU also pays for the cost of limited private insurance through Chubb Insurance for placements that take place outside of Ontario (i.e. at international and other Canadian jurisdictions) and with Ontario employers that are not required to have compulsory coverage under the WSIA. For any other university-approved work placements or volunteer settings, paid or unpaid, that are not eligible for WSIB or MTCU, insurance will be covered by TMU’s Accidental Injury, Death and Dismemberment policy.

Duration

The coverage provided by the MTCU is in effect from the start date of the work placement to its end date.

Coverage

The insurance covers any occupational disease or injuries caused by an exposure or incident or injury on-the-job in the workplace during the work placement, including placements that take place away from the main campus. However, student trainees are not eligible for WSIA benefits if disease or injuries are caused by an incident or injury that occurs during a personal errand or personal business.

If the student trainee chooses to do their unpaid work placement outside of the province (for international students, this applies as long as the placement is not in their country of primary residence), the student trainee would still be eligible for coverage under the private insurance plan provided by Chubb Insurance. However, the student trainee is advised to obtain complementary insurance since Chubb Insurance does not provide full compensation. Any other insurance the unpaid student trainee may have (e.g. from the government, through a spouse’s or parent’s plan, etc.) first pays for all eligible expenses; then Chubb Insurance will pay excess eligible expenses.

In the case that a student trainee has been involved in an incident or injury, immediately upon learning of the incident, the placement coordinator should follow these steps:

• If the placement employer is covered by WSIB, follow the  (word file) reporting process as outlined by TMU's Office of the Legal Counsel and Board Secretariat.
• If the placement employer is not covered by WSIB, immediately upon learning of the incident, TMU’s placement coordinator must contact Chubb Insurance and complete the appropriate paperwork.

Chubb Insurance of Canada
Email: claims.a_h@chubb.com
Phone: 1-877-772-7797

The student trainee is required to:

1. Complete the Student Declaration of Understanding form (to be provided by the student trainee’s institution).
2. Complete all of the following mandatory training:
   • TMU Environmental Health and Safety eLearning (online training);
   • TMU Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) (online training); and
   • other site- or hazard-specific training required on the job as per their TMU supervisor.
3. In the event of a workplace incident or injury during the placement, notify their TMU supervisor and the student trainee’s institution placement coordinator.

Prior to the placement start date, the TMU placement coordinator is required to:

1. Receive the following from the student trainee’s institution:
   • student trainee’s full name (or a list of trainees if multiple trainees is coming from one training agency);
   • specific days when the student trainee(s) will be at TMU;
   • student trainee(s) acceptance of the conditions of the unpaid work placement (i.e. Student Declaration of Understanding from the student trainee’s institution); and
   • a signed Letter to Placement Employers (from the student trainee’s institution).
2. Provide the Letter to Placement Employers to the TMU placement supervisor to sign, and return the signed letter to the student trainee’s institution.

Under the OHSA, a supervisor is a person who has authority over a worker or has control of the activity being performed by a worker in a workplace. This may include a Toronto Metropolitan University faculty or staff member who provides direct control or supervision of a placement student. Faculty or staff members are considered supervisors under the Ontario Ministry of Labour guidelines, if they do any of the following:

• determine the tasks to be done by a particular placement student;
• direct and monitor how work is performed on an ongoing basis;
• decide and schedule hours of work; and/or
• deal directly with placement students’ occupational health and safety concerns and complaints.

For a full description, please refer to the definition above.

The placement supervisor of the student trainee is required to:

1. Complete and sign the Letter to Placement Employers (provided by the student trainee’s institution), return it to the TMU placement coordinator.
2. Complete TMU’s Environmental Health and Safety eLearning (online training) and Health and Safety for Managers and Supervisors (in-class training).
3. Familiarize themselves with the supervisor duties under the OHSA, which include:
   • ensuring that a worker works in the manner, and uses the protected devices; measures and procedures required by the OHSA, and follows the applicable regulations required by the employer;
   • advising the worker of any potential or actual dangers to health or safety you are aware of;
   • providing the worker with written instructions as to the measures and procedures to be taken for their protection; and
   • taking every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the worker.
4. Complete the Safety Orientation Checklist for Student Trainees and Learners Working at TMU (external link) .
5. Ensure that the student trainee completes the following:
   • TMU Environmental Health and Safety eLearning (online training);
   • TMU Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) (online training); and
   • other site- or hazard-specific training required on the job.
   • Note: For high risk work (e.g. work in wet laboratories, machine shops and studios, etc.) student trainees are required to attend Young Worker Awareness training. Please contact Environmental Health and Safety at 416-979-5000, ext. 553770 or ehs@torontomu.ca for session dates.
6. In the event of an incident or injury, follow the steps under “If a non-TMU student trainee has been hurt” on the Report an Incident or Injury page.

This procedure applies when Toronto Metropolitan University is the placement employer, and accepts student trainees from an external Ontario educational institution.

Eligibility

Any post-secondary student completing an unpaid work placement offered by an Ontario publicly assisted post-secondary institution (external link)  has workplace insurance coverage paid by the MTCU.

Note: The MTCU pays back the WSIB for the cost of any benefits paid by the Board under the WSIA. The MTCU also pays for the cost paid by Chubb Insurance (limited private insurance) for placements that take place outside of Ontario (i.e. at international and other Canadian jurisdictions) or with Ontario employers who are not required to have coverage under the WSIA.

Duration

The Ontario Ministry of Labour coverage is in effect from the work placement start date to end date.

Coverage

The insurance covers any occupational disease or injuries caused by an event, incident or injury on-the-job in the workplace during the work placement, including placements that take place away from the main campus. However, students are not eligible for WSIA benefits if disease or injuries are caused by an incident or injury that occurs during a personal errand or personal business.

If a student trainee from an external Ontario educational institution completing an unpaid work placement at TMU has been involved in an incident or injury, the placement supervisor(s) and coordinators(s) must follow the steps under “If a non-TMU student trainee has been hurt” on the Report an Incident or Injury page.