Straighten, weld and rebuild crashed vehicles. Compulsory trade in Ontario, paid by insurance work.
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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 7,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $130,676 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)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 5,520 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $99,084 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)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 4,560 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $81,852 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)
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $56,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $38,000 at the lower end to about $83,000 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.
$2,500 to $8,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. Elsewhere there is none 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
$56,000
Lower end
$38,000
Upper end
$83,000
Job Bank's figures for auto body technicians across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $18.50 an hour at the low end, $27.00 median and $40.00 at the high end, about $38,000, $56,000 and $83,000 a year at 40 hours a week.
$36.46 an hour
The median in Yukon, the highest in Canada
Among the provinces, British Columbia is highest at $31.82, then Ontario at $29.00. Quebec and the Atlantic provinces sit lowest, at $25.00. Many shops start you on prep and detailing.
Insurer labour rates
Most collision repairs are paid for by an insurance company
Most collision work is paid for by insurance companies, and they negotiate the labour rate a shop can charge. That caps what shops can pay. Fast techs on flat rate earn more. Slow weeks and hidden damage pay less.
Roughly, all in
$2,500 to $8,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so the only tuition is the in school blocks, three of them over about four years. The low end is blocks at the cheap end, a basic tool kit built up slowly and the Certificate of Qualification exam, free on your first try in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is a fuller dent pulling and welding kit bought up front. The Canada Apprentice Loan charges no interest and EI (Employment Insurance) is paid while you are in class, so the cash flow is easier than the totals suggest, but the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025 and should not be counted on.
Tools cost less than in mechanical trades, but a good dent-pulling and welding kit adds up. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025. The new federal Red Seal Completion Bonus pays $5,000 if you finish your apprenticeship and get certified in a Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025. Applications open November 16, 2026.
Health and dental
Chains and dealership shops yes, small independents less often.
Respirator and safety gear supplied
Required by law for paint and body work.
Paid industry training
Aluminum and electric vehicle repair courses are usually employer paid.
Overtime after storms
Hail season fills every shop in Alberta.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A 4-year apprenticeship in Ontario, 3 in some provinces. Mostly on the job.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with shop, art or design, and math. OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) lets you start in Grade 11 or 12.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
Collision shops, dealership body shops and big repair chains. Walk in with a resume. Detailing or prep jobs are the usual way in.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario (trade code 310B), Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, SkilledTradesBC or your province's authority.
Work and study
3 to 4 years
Ontario requires 8,000 hours: 7,280 on the job plus 720 in school, taken in three blocks at a college.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal title is Auto Body and Collision Technician, valid across Canada.
Shop and technology
Welding and metalwork most of all.
Art or design
Colour, shape and an eye for straight lines matter.
Math
Measuring frames to the millimetre.
Chemistry
Paints, fillers and adhesives.
English
Estimates and insurance paperwork.
In Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia you must be a registered apprentice or certified to do auto body repair. Quebec requires it in the regions covered by an auto industry joint committee, such as Montreal. Elsewhere it is voluntary. Painting is its own trade, Automotive Painter in Ontario, with its own Red Seal. Many people hold both tickets.
Ontario
Centennial, Fanshawe, Conestoga, St. Clair College in Windsor.
Alberta
SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology).
British Columbia
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), Vancouver Community College.
Manitoba
Red River College Polytechnic.
In Quebec you start with a vocational diploma, and in regions covered by a decree a joint committee for the auto service industry tracks your hours and runs the journeyperson exam.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Auto Bodywork 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 Auto Bodywork (5372, or 5872 in English)
About 15 months
1,650 hours of damage assessment, panel repair, welding and painting. In French at more than 20 centres. In English at the Verdun vocational centre in Montreal.
Apprentice card
First job
In Montreal, Saguenay and other decree regions, you register with the CPA (comité paritaire, the joint committee for the auto service industry) and get an apprentice card.
Work as an apprentice
About 3 years
In Montreal the apprenticeship is three periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all. The Saguenay committee credits a bodywork DEP with 1,500 hours.
Journeyperson exam
End of apprenticeship
Pass the end of apprenticeship exam for a class C journeyperson (compagnon) card. After 12 months as class C you can sit the exam for the next class up.
Red Seal, if you want it
Optional
Auto body and collision technician is a Red Seal trade in Quebec. It makes it simpler to work in other provinces.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Automotive Painter (a second trade)
Refinishing pays a bit more and lets you run a whole job start to finish.
Aluminum and high-strength steel repair
New vehicles use materials that need special welding and rivet bonding. Shops need certified techs to keep insurer approvals.
Electric vehicle safety training
High-voltage battery packs sit right where collisions happen.
ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) calibration
Cameras and radar sensors have to be recalibrated after a windshield or bumper. A growing niche.
Estimator
Writing repair estimates for insurers. A desk role off the shop floor.
Driver's licence
Steady hands and patience
Sanding is most of the job.
Pre-apprenticeship program
Makes shops more willing to sponsor you.
WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials) certificate
A cheap one-day course.
Welding basics
Even a high school course helps.
A small number of body techs restore classic cars or build custom paint jobs. It is slower, more creative and less insurance-driven, and the best shops charge by the hour with no book time. Getting there usually means years in collision repair first.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start around 7:30am. Pull a damaged car into your bay, strip the bumper and fender, and check the estimate against what you actually find. Pull dents, weld in a new quarter panel, measure the frame on a laser bench. Skim filler, sand, prime. Hand it to the painter, then reassemble and line up every panel gap after paint. Two or three cars on the go at once.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The June 13, 2020 hailstorm in and around Calgary caused about $1.2 billion in insured damage, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reported, much of it to vehicles. Body shops booked months of work overnight.
Ford's full-size pickup switched to an aluminum body in 2015. Aluminum cannot be repaired with steel tools or welded the same way, so shops built separate clean rooms and retrained.
After spraying, a booth bakes the car at around 60 degrees Celsius for 30 to 40 minutes to cure the clear coat.
Radar, cameras and parking sensors live in bumpers and grilles. A cheap-looking bumper repair can include a $500 calibration.
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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