Bread, pastry and cakes before dawn. Start tomorrow with no schooling, or earn a Red Seal in 3 years.
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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 5,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $94,776 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 6,130 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $110,034 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 $36,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $31,000 at the lower end to about $52,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 3 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$350 to $11,000 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
$36,000
Lower end
$31,000
Upper end
$52,000
Job Bank's figures for bakers across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $15.00 an hour at the low end, $17.50 median and $24.81 at the high end, about $31,000, $36,000 and $52,000 a year at 40 hours a week. Many bakeries start you close to minimum wage. Unionized grocery store bakeries pay a bit more and add benefits.
$22.69 an hour
The median in Yukon, the highest in Canada
Among the provinces, British Columbia is highest at $20.00, and Newfoundland and Labrador lowest at $16.35. Owning a bakery pays whatever the business makes, which can be nothing in a bad year.
Roughly, all in
$350 to $11,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is starting as a helper or a registered apprentice: your knives, a uniform and a food handler certificate of about fifty dollars, with school blocks a few hundred dollars each and EI (Employment Insurance) paid while you are in class. The high end is a one year college baking and pastry program paid up front plus a full kit of knives and tools. Neither route needs a degree. Pay in this trade is modest, so the smaller the up front spend the sooner it makes sense.
You can also just start as a helper and learn on the job, which is how many bakers began. 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.
Grocery chains
Health, dental, pension and a union at many Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro stores.
Hotels
Benefits, staff meals, steadier hours.
Bread at no charge
Nearly universal.
Early finish
Start at 4am, done by noon.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Three ways in: on the job, a 1-year college program, or a 3-year Red Seal apprenticeship.
Food handler certificate
1 day
A short online course, required before you touch food commercially.
Start in a bakery
Any time
Helper, then baker's assistant. Grocery bakeries hire teenagers. This is the real school.
College or apprenticeship (optional)
1 to 3 years
A 1-year baking and pastry program at George Brown in Toronto, Niagara College, Vancouver Community College, SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) or NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), or a 3-year apprenticeship registered with your provincial trades authority.
Certificate (optional)
After 3 years
Ontario's apprenticeship is 6,000 hours, 5,280 on the job plus 720 in school, and ends in a Certificate of Apprenticeship with no exam. Most other provinces add the interprovincial Red Seal exam for a ticket that works across Canada.
Move up
Years
Baker, then head baker, production manager or pastry chef. Or open your own place.
Hospitality and culinary
Many high schools have real kitchens.
Math
Scaling recipes and costing.
Chemistry
Yeast, gluten and sugar are chemistry.
Business
If you ever want your own bakery.
Co-op in a bakery
Anyone can call themselves a baker. Baker is a Red Seal trade, and the ticket helps in unionized grocery chains, hotels and institutions. In Ontario the trade is voluntary and there is no provincial certifying exam, so Ontario apprentices finish with a certificate of apprenticeship rather than a Red Seal. Most other provinces do offer the exam.
In Quebec bread baking is a 6 month vocational diploma, and the baker certificate comes through a voluntary workplace apprenticeship.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Bread Making needs a high school diploma, or age 16 with Secondary III language, second language and math. From 18, the general development test is another way in.
DEP in Bread Making (Boulangerie, 5370)
About 6 months
795 hours, in French at hotel schools in Quebec City, the Laurentides, Montérégie and Montreal.
Or study it in English
About 8 months
Professional Bread Making (5870) is the English version, at the Pearson Adult and Career Centre in Montreal.
Get hired
After the DEP
Independent bakeries, grocery store bakeries and hotels. Quebec.ca lists a median wage for bakers in Quebec of $18.00 an hour, from $16.60 to $26.00, averaged over 2023 to 2025.
Workplace apprenticeship
Up to 36 months
In the PAMT (workplace apprenticeship program), a journeyperson at your bakery trains you at least 21 hours a week. It costs you nothing and leads to a Quebec certificate of qualification as a baker.
Red Seal, if you want it
Optional
Baker is a Red Seal trade in Quebec. Your Quebec certificate lets you sit the interprovincial exam, which makes it simpler to work in other provinces.
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Pastry Making (Pâtisserie, 5297, or 5797 in English) is the pastry route, with an ASP (Attestation of Vocational Specialization) in Contemporary Professional Pastry Making (5342, or 5842 in English) after it. Placement rates reported by Quebec: 61.3% for bread making, 67.3% for pastry in French, 75.3% in English and 82.9% for the specialization in French.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pastry chef
The higher-paid path. Plated desserts, chocolate and sugar work in hotels and restaurants. Often a separate college program.
Cake decorating and wedding cakes
High margins, custom orders.
Artisan bread and sourdough
Prestige bakeries and farmers markets.
Red Seal Cook (a second trade)
Opens hotel and camp kitchens.
Production management
Wholesale plants run like factories and need supervisors.
Being a morning person
Not a joke. It decides who lasts.
Time in a serious bakery
A year at a respected artisan bakery is worth more than a diploma.
Competitions
Skills Canada baking events get you noticed.
A home baking habit
Bring samples to the interview.
Bakeries are among the most common small businesses in Canada. Startup cost is $50,000 to $250,000 for ovens, mixers and a lease. Owners work the longest hours of anyone in the trade and margins are thin, but a good neighbourhood bakery can run for decades.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Alarm at 3am. In the bakery by 4: ovens on, doughs mixed yesterday get shaped and proofed, first loaves out by 6, croissants and muffins for the morning rush. Cakes and custom orders mid-morning. Clean down and mix tomorrow's doughs. Done by noon or 1pm. Grocery bakeries run similar hours with more packaging and less scratch baking.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Canada grows some of the world's best bread wheat, mostly in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, and exports most of it. Bakers here get strong flour cheaply.
December and the days before Easter and Thanksgiving are the busiest weeks of the year in any bakery. Expect to work them.
Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart run in-store bakeries across the country, and they are where many bakers find their first job.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Personal, food and outdoor trades 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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