Fix the combines, tractors and sprayers that feed the country. A Red Seal trade with a Job Bank median of about $77,000 a year.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
An apprenticeship: you are hired by a sponsor, paid while you learn on the job, and go to class for a few weeks at a time. Every fact here is from Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) and the Ontario government. See every Ontario trade side by side
You are paid from your first day. Over the 6,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $112,726 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
Still in high school? In Grade 11 or 12, with at least 14 credits and age 15 or older, you can start an apprenticeship through co-op placements and earn credits at the same time. Ask your school's OYAP recruiter, guidance counsellor or co-op teacher. Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)(opens in a new tab)
Not ready to find a sponsor? Free pre-apprenticeship programs (up to a year at a college or community agency, tools and books covered, with a work placement) get you ready and in front of employers. Employment Ontario helps you apply. Pre-apprenticeship training(opens in a new tab)
Ontario sets no percentage of full pay for apprentices. Your sponsor agrees your wage with you, and it can never be below the minimum wage: $17.95 an hour from 1 October 2026. Source (opens in a new tab)
The median pay is about $77,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $114,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 to 4 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,200 to $24,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$77,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$114,000
Job Bank's national median is $37.12 an hour, about $77,000 a year full time. Job Bank's highest provincial medians are in British Columbia ($45) and Alberta ($42 an hour), and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are higher still. Harvest-season overtime is on top of these rates.
A rising share of the full rate
Your pay goes up at each level of the apprenticeship
Apprentices are paid a share of the journeyperson rate that rises each level. Some dealerships pay signing bonuses and cover school costs. In Ontario no share is set in law: your sponsor agrees your rate, often in a union or company agreement, and it can never be below the minimum wage.
Roughly, all in
$1,200 to $24,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship, so the low end is a dealer that covers the in school blocks while you build a tool set slowly and sit the Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal exam at the end, free on your first try in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is paying for a 35 week pre apprenticeship certificate up front, then the school blocks, then a fuller tool set. Tools are the part that keeps costing money for years after you qualify. Many dealers pay for blocks and some pay for tools to keep apprentices, so ask before you sign on.
Many dealers pay for school blocks and even tools to keep apprentices. Ask before you sign on.
Service truck
Field technicians get a fully stocked truck.
Health, dental and retirement matching
Standard at dealer groups.
Manufacturer training
John Deere, Case, New Holland and Kubota train dealer technicians at their expense.
Harvest overtime
Time and a half for weeks at a stretch.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A Red Seal apprenticeship, about 3.5 years in Ontario. College first is common on the Prairies.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Shop, math, physics. Growing up around farm equipment is a real advantage, but not required.
Optional college certificate
1 year
Saskatchewan Polytechnic runs a 35-week Agricultural Equipment Technician certificate that counts toward apprenticeship and includes dealership work experience.
Find a sponsor
Weeks
Farm equipment dealerships are actively recruiting. Many hire apprentices straight out of high school or the college program.
Work and study
3 to 4 years
Ontario (trade code 425A): 7,000 hours, 6,280 on the job plus 720 in school. Other provinces run 4 periods of roughly 1,500 to 1,800 hours.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the exam. The Red Seal lets you work in any province.
Shop or transportation technology
Engines, hydraulics and welding basics.
Math
Hydraulic pressures, gear ratios and electrical diagnostics.
Physics
Everything on a combine is mechanics and electricity.
Computer courses
Modern tractors are rolling computers with GPS (Global Positioning System) guidance.
Agriculture or co-op at a dealer
The fastest route to a sponsor.
No province forces you to hold a certificate to fix farm equipment, so the trade is voluntary. In practice dealers want certified technicians for warranty work and pay them more. Agricultural Equipment Technician is a Red Seal trade, which means one exam gives you a ticket recognized in every province and territory.
Quebec has no apprenticeship certificate or Red Seal for this trade, so a vocational diploma followed by work at a dealer is the main route.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Agricultural Mechanics needs a high school diploma, or age 16 with Secondary IV language, second language and math. From 18, the general development test is another way in.
DEP in Agricultural Mechanics (5335)
About 20 months
1,800 hours on tractors, tillage equipment and crop production and treatment systems. Taught in French only, at eight centres in farm regions such as Montérégie, Estrie, Laurentides and Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Work at a dealer or farm
After the DEP
Graduates are hired as agricultural mechanics. Quebec has no register of hours or journeyperson exam for this trade, so your experience is what moves you up.
Red Seal, only outside Quebec
Optional
Quebec does not take part in the Red Seal for agricultural equipment technician. It is offered in nine other provinces, including Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The rules change on nearby equipment. Mechanics who repair heavy machines on Quebec construction sites need a certificate from the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission). Heavy truck mechanics come under a CPA (comité paritaire, the joint committee for the auto service industry) in the regions where one exists.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Precision agriculture and GPS (Global Positioning System) guidance
Auto-steer, yield mapping and sprayer controllers. The scarcest skill at any dealership.
Hydraulics and electronics diagnostics
Most breakdowns on modern machines are sensors and wiring, not engines.
Heavy duty equipment technician (a second Red Seal)
Opens construction and mining equipment work.
Field service
Truck-based work at the farm.
Driver's licence, ideally a class that covers trucks
Field service means driving a heavy service truck.
Welding basics
Cracked frames and augers are common repairs.
Farm background
Knowing how a combine is used makes you a better diagnostician.
Willingness to move rural
Many dealerships are in small Prairie towns.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Winter: a shop full of combines and tractors booked for off-season inspections. Tear down a header, replace bearings, update software, road-test. Spring and harvest: the phone rings at 6am, a sprayer is down in a field 80 kilometres away, and every hour it sits costs the farmer money. Load the service truck, diagnose it in the field, fix it, drive to the next one. Sixty-hour weeks until the crop is in.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Most new tractors and combines steer by GPS (Global Positioning System) to within a few centimetres. A big part of a modern technician's job is calibrating guidance systems and updating software, not turning wrenches.
The trade became a Red Seal trade in 1992. Today nine provinces offer the Red Seal for it: every province except Quebec.
The national standard for the trade covers tractors, combines and implements for tillage, seeding, haying and spraying, and says technicians may also work on outdoor power equipment.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Vehicles and equipment first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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