Frame houses, form concrete towers or finish trim. The broadest trade on any site, paid from day one.
Click through it
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 6,480 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $116,316 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 $67,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $92,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 5 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,000 to $7,650 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 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
$67,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$92,000
Job Bank's figures for carpenters across Canada (2023 to 2024) are $22.00 an hour at the low end, $32.12 median and $44.23 at the high end, about $46,000, $67,000 and $92,000 a year at 40 hours a week.
$36.84 an hour
The median in Quebec, the highest in Canada
Yukon ($35.00) and Alberta ($34.00) follow, Ontario and British Columbia sit at $32.00, and New Brunswick is lowest at $24.00. Apprentices are paid from the first day, and the rate rises with each level.
Roughly, all in
$1,000 to $7,650
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Apprentices earn while they train, so most carpenters finish with no student debt at all. The low end is an employer who pays for the three in school levels, a basic tool belt built up over four years, and the Certificate of Qualification exam, free on your first try in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is paying for all three levels yourself at the top provincial rate and buying a full kit of hand and power tools. The Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to $4,000 per school block with no interest, and EI (Employment Insurance) can cover part of your income while you are in class.
Most carpenters finish with no student debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed on March 31, 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.
Union pension and benefits
The Carpenters' District Council of Ontario (the carpenters' union) and its counterparts in other provinces run pension, health and dental plans.
Overtime at time and a half
Travel and living-out allowances
On remote industrial or camp jobs.
Tool allowance
Written into some collective agreements.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship, not a degree. Most of it is paid work on site.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and a shop class. OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) or RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program) in Alberta let you start in Grade 11 or 12.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A builder, a formwork contractor, a renovator or the union hiring hall. A pre-apprenticeship program helps you get noticed.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's equivalent.
Work and study
4 years
7,200 hours in Ontario: 6,480 on the job plus three in-school levels of 8 to 10 weeks at a college.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work in any province.
Math
Fractions, geometry and trig. Roof cuts and stairs are all triangles.
Construction technology or woodworking
Shows you can use tools safely.
Physics
Loads, spans and why a beam holds.
English
You read drawings, specs and the building code every day.
Carpenter is a compulsory trade only in Quebec, where construction work needs a competency certificate from the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). In every other province and territory, including Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, you can legally work without a certificate. Certification still matters: union sites, government projects and many contractors want it. The Red Seal endorsement lets you move between provinces without retesting.
In Quebec the trade is called carpenter-joiner (charpentier-menuisier), you take a vocational diploma first, and the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) decides who can work on a site.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Carpentry 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 Carpentry (5319, or 5819 in English)
About 11 months
1,350 hours of framing, formwork, finishing and stairs. Offered in every region of Quebec in French, and at several centres in English.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ. You need the DEP, an employer registered with the CCQ who guarantees at least 150 hours of work within 3 months, the 30 hour site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
About 3,975 hours
Three periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all. The DEP counts for its hours plus a 50% bonus, about 2,025, which leaves about 3,975 hours of paid site work.
Qualification exam
Near the end
The provincial exam, set by the CCQ. You can sit it once 85% of your apprenticeship hours are done. Pass and you become a journeyperson (compagnon).
Rosemount Technology Centre, Montreal
English Montreal School Board.
Lennoxville vocational centre, Estrie
In the Eastern Townships.
Châteauguay Valley vocational centre, Montérégie
South of Montreal.
Construc-Plus, Laurentides
Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board.
Anchor vocational centre, Gaspésie
On the Gaspé coast.
The CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) sometimes opens a labour pool when a region runs short of workers. Then you can get an apprentice certificate without the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies), as long as an employer guarantees you 150 hours of work. If you already have work and training that add up to 35% of the apprenticeship, you can apply on that basis instead. Carpentry is a big construction trade in Quebec: in 2025 the CCQ counted 56,441 carpenter-joiners active on sites, out of 203,039 construction workers in all, and admitted 4,793 new apprentices.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra interprovincial exam. Employers across Canada recognise it.
Formwork
Building the moulds that concrete towers and bridges are poured into. Heavy and fast.
Finish carpentry
Trim, stairs and built-ins. Precise, indoor and steady through winter.
Scaffolding tickets
Short courses that let you erect and inspect scaffolds.
Gold Seal supervisor certification
From the Canadian Construction Association, for moving into foreperson and superintendent roles.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A college semester or two that makes sponsors more willing to take you.
Driver's licence and a vehicle
Sites move. Nearly every employer expects you to get yourself there.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses. Some employers will not let you on site without them.
Basic fitness
You lift, carry and climb all day.
Framing crews build houses fast, often paid by the square foot. Formwork crews build and strip concrete forms on towers, usually union. Finish carpenters work indoors on trim and stairs, slower and more precise. Many carpenters switch between them over a career, and the certificate covers all three.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site by 7am. Read the drawings, lay out walls, cut and nail framing, set floor joists or roof trusses. On a tower, build and strip formwork for the next pour. On a renovation, tear out and rebuild while the homeowner watches. Lunch on a bucket. Clean up and charge tools before 3:30 or 4pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Wood-frame construction is the standard for houses and low-rise buildings across Canada. Carpenters build the skeleton of almost every new home in the country.
Brock Commons at UBC (University of British Columbia) was 18 storeys of mass timber when it opened in 2017, one of the tallest wood buildings in the world at the time. Tall wood buildings are now allowed under the national building code.
On a concrete tower, carpenters build the forms for each floor, the concrete is poured, and then they strip the forms and move them up a level. The building rises one floor at a time this way.
Carpenters become site supervisors, estimators, building inspectors, renovation contractors and cabinetmakers. The ticket is a starting point for many building careers.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Construction 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.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.