Build custom kitchens, cabinets and furniture in a shop. A 4-year paid apprenticeship, quieter and steadier than site work, with lower pay.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Journeyperson
$50,000
1st-year apprentice
$35,000
Shop lead or CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) programmer
$70,000
Be honest with yourself: this trade pays less than electricians, plumbers or crane operators. The top end is shop leads, CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) programmers and owners of a successful custom shop.
$18 to $21 an hour
First-year apprentice
Starts near minimum wage in many shops and rises each year. Larger millwork factories in big cities pay more than small-town shops.
$26 to $35 an hour
About $52,000 to $70,000 a year full time
Running the CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) or leading a shop floor gets you to the top of the range. Owning a shop can pay more, but the equipment costs a lot and margins are thin.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship, so there is no tuition to find up front and the shop owns the expensive machines. The low end is an apprentice whose employer covers the three in school blocks, who builds a hand tool kit slowly, and who pays about $150 for the Certificate of Qualification exam. The high end is paying for all three blocks yourself at the top provincial rate plus a fuller set of hand and measuring tools. The Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to $4,000 per block interest free, and EI (Employment Insurance) can replace some income during class time.
The shop owns the big machines, so your own costs stay low. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check the Government of Canada apprenticeship page for what is open now.
Steady, year-round indoor work
No winter layoffs, no rain days. Most shops run 8 to 4, Monday to Friday.
Health benefits at larger shops
Small shops often offer none. Unions are rare in this trade.
Skills that transfer
Millwork, furniture, store fixtures, boat interiors, film sets, restoration.
You can build your own things
Most cabinetmakers furnish their own homes at cost.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A paid apprenticeship in a shop, plus college blocks.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12. Woodworking, math and design classes help. Ontario students can start early through OYAP (the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program).
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A cabinet shop, millwork factory or furniture maker willing to register you. A one-year college woodworking program makes this much easier.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With your provincial trades authority: Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or SkilledTradesBC.
Work and study
About 4 years
About 8,000 hours in Ontario: 7,280 in the shop plus 720 hours in class, usually three blocks at a college. Other provinces set their own hours.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Add the interprovincial Red Seal endorsement to work in any province.
Woodworking or construction technology
The most direct preparation there is.
Math
Fractions, angles and cut lists every day. Mistakes waste expensive sheets of material.
Drafting or design
Shop drawings and 3D design software are now standard.
Computer classes
CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) programming is where the pay is heading.
In Ontario, cabinetmaker is a voluntary trade. No licence is required to build cabinets for pay, and many good cabinetmakers never certify. The Certificate of Qualification and the Red Seal endorsement matter most if you want to work in a large millwork shop, teach, or move provinces. Alberta and BC also treat it as voluntary.
Ontario
Conestoga College in Kitchener runs a two-year Woodworking Technician diploma with the cabinetmaker apprenticeship levels built in. Other Ontario colleges deliver the apprenticeship in-school blocks.
BC
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) offers joinery and cabinetmaking training.
Quebec
Vocational centres offer cabinetmaking diplomas, mostly in French.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) programming
Turning a design into a cutting program for the machine. The best-paid skill on the shop floor.
3D design software
Programs that draw the kitchen, price it and generate the cut list. Designers who can also build are valuable.
Finishing
Spray lacquer and stain in a finishing booth. A separate skill that many shops struggle to staff.
Solid wood furniture and joinery
Slower, harder, and what custom studios pay for.
A college woodworking program first
One or two years. Not required, but it gets you sponsored and skips the sweeping-floors stage.
Patience and precision
A millimetre off on a cabinet door shows.
Respect for machines that can take a finger
Table saws and jointers do not forgive.
Some cabinetmakers leave kitchens behind and build one-off furniture for designers, galleries and clients. The work is beautiful and slow. Most furniture makers mix custom pieces with steadier millwork or teaching to make the income work, and the ones who succeed are as good at selling as at building.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
7:30 in the shop. Read the drawings, pull sheets of plywood and MDF (medium-density fibreboard), break them down on the panel saw or load the CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine). Edgeband the parts, drill for hinges and shelves, then assemble boxes and hang doors. Sanding, a lot of sanding. Some days you drive out to install a kitchen. Hearing protection and a dust mask all day. Home by 4:30, same time every day.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Cabinetmaker is one of the Red Seal trades, so a certified cabinetmaker can work in any province without re-testing.
Fine dust from hardwoods like oak and beech is linked to nasal cancer after years of exposure. Good shops have dust collection on every machine, and good cabinetmakers wear a mask anyway.
In a modern shop, a CNC (computer-controlled cutting machine) cuts a whole kitchen's parts from a file in an hour. The cabinetmaker's job has shifted toward design, programming, assembly and the finish quality a machine cannot judge.
Last checked September 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.