OaSIS in Practice: What Canadian Clinicians Are Expected to Know in 2026

Across Canada, OaSIS is no longer emerging. It is becoming the default occupational reference used by federal systems, labour market data sources, and many referral partners involved in vocational rehabilitation.

Yet many clinicians continue to ask the same question:

How well am I actually expected to understand OaSIS to do my job properly?

This uncertainty is understandable. OaSIS descriptors are detailed. They are structured differently than legacy occupational resources. And until recently, formal guidance on how to interpret and apply OaSIS in day-to-day clinical practice has been limited.

Adoption of OaSIS reflects a broader shift toward updated, observable, and more detailed occupational data that can be used consistently across systems. For clinicians, the challenge is not whether OaSIS matters, but how deeply it needs to be understood to support competent, defensible practice.

Where to Start: Getting Familiar With OaSIS in a Practical Way

For most Canadian clinicians, the difficulty is knowing where to begin without feeling buried in descriptors or terminology.

The good news is this: you do not need to learn OaSIS all at once to use it well. A practical starting point is to focus on how OaSIS organises work, rather than attempting to memorise individual ratings.

A helpful first step is to visit the National Occupational Classification (NOC) web site maintained by Employment and Social Development Canada and click on Learn About the NOC. This section explains the revision process, concepts and conventions, and includes tutorials and frequently asked questions.

From there, review the background information for the Occupational and Skills Information System (OaSIS) itself. Several free tools are available that help users navigate how occupational information is structured and presented.

Compare OaSIS to What You Already Know

Once you are familiar with the overall structure, select a small number of occupations you already know well. Review how OaSIS presents those roles and compare this to how you have traditionally described job demands in your own practice.

Pay attention to:

• The information provided in the Overview tab
• How work characteristics are described in observable terms
• How physical, cognitive, and sensory skills and abilities are detailed
• How items are rated by proficiency, duration, frequency, and importance
• The shift to Holland Codes for work interest descriptors
• The inclusion of Employment Requirements and areas of Knowledge

Ask yourself:

• What looks familiar?
• What is new or different?
• What is more specific than what you used previously?

This step builds familiarity without requiring you to learn entirely new content. Instead, it helps you see how OaSIS expands on and clarifies concepts you already use.

Focus on Patterns

As you move beyond the overview and begin working more closely with OaSIS descriptors, the system becomes far more manageable when you shift your attention from individual items to broader patterns.

Many occupations share similar demand profiles. As you review more roles, you will begin to notice repeated structures in how physical, cognitive, sensory, and psychosocial demands are organised and rated. These patterns are intentional. They allow occupational information to be compared consistently across roles rather than interpreted in isolation.

For example, you may notice that:

• Physical demand profiles often cluster around similar combinations of posture, force, and movement
• Cognitive and executive demands follow predictable gradients related to complexity, autonomy, and problem-solving
• Rating scales are applied consistently across occupations, even when job tasks differ

At this stage, accuracy matters more than completeness. The goal is not to document every descriptor, but to understand how descriptors are designed to guide vocational reasoning.

Over time, pattern recognition reduces cognitive load. Instead of approaching each occupation as entirely new, clinicians begin to anticipate likely demand profiles and then confirm or refine those expectations using the descriptors. This is often the point where OaSIS shifts from feeling overwhelming to becoming efficient and clinically useful.

What Do the Rating Scales Mean?

A common question at this stage is what the rating scales actually represent. The answer is not always apparent from the public website alone.

The Canadian Rating Guide (CRG) provides detailed criteria for each level of the rating scales used in the Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge sections. These guides include definitions, indicators, example tasks, and example occupations. At the time of writing, ratings for Work Environment descriptors were still being finalised.

Most clinicians do not need to master the full CRG to work competently with OaSIS. Instead, the guide is best used selectively. When starting out, use the search function within the PDF to locate the specific descriptors relevant to your client. Reviewing the criteria and examples helps clarify how ratings are intended to be applied.

With repeated use, clinicians naturally become more familiar with how these descriptors expand on legacy occupational resources, such as the Career Handbook.

To obtain a copy of these guides, look for this section on the NOC web site, and click ‘Contact Us’ to request your own pdf copies. At the time of writing, the Work Environment descriptor ratings were being finalised.

How Do I Assess for These Criteria?

Clinicians who are accustomed to standardised assessments and normative data may find criterion-based rating systems challenging at first.

There is no single assessment tool that maps directly onto OaSIS descriptors. Assessment approaches vary depending on professional background, training, and scope of practice. For this reason, identifying specific tools is beyond the scope of this paper.

Instead, clinicians are encouraged to:

• Understand what their existing assessment tools measure in functional terms
• Use triangulation, combining interview data, observation, and assessment results
• Apply clinical judgement when aligning client abilities with OaSIS criteria
• Document decision-making clearly and be prepared to explain the rationale

This approach supports defensibility while respecting professional autonomy.

Applying OaSIS in Practice

Once clinicians are comfortable navigating OaSIS and interpreting descriptors, the next step is applying that information consistently within transferable skills analysis and vocational reporting.

Some clinicians may feel ready to integrate OaSIS into their existing processes independently. Others may find that structured education helps clarify how OaSIS fits within a complete TSA framework and how to apply it efficiently and consistently.

Structured education can help bridge this gap by demonstrating how OaSIS supports vocational reasoning rather than replacing it. The Transferable Skills Analysis in Canada education program can help you navigate this application.

Looking Ahead

When OaSIS is used selectively and purposefully, it strengthens clarity and consistency without increasing report length or complexity. As with any new framework, confidence develops through use. Over time, clinicians learn where depth of understanding truly matters and where it does not.

A logical next step is to explore how much OaSIS knowledge is actually required for common vocational rehabilitation tasks, and how clinicians can apply it efficiently while maintaining clear, defensible reasoning.

 Quick Summary: OaSIS in Practice

• OaSIS is becoming the default occupational reference across Canadian vocational rehabilitation systems.

• Clinicians do not need to memorise every descriptor to use OaSIS effectively.

• Start by understanding how OaSIS organises work, then compare familiar occupations to your existing practice knowledge.

• Focus on patterns across occupations, not individual descriptors, to reduce complexity and improve efficiency.

• Use rating scales to guide reasoning, not as a checklist. Accuracy matters more than completeness.

• Apply OaSIS selectively and document your clinical reasoning clearly to support defensible vocational conclusions.