Support adults and kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live, work and belong. A 2-year diploma, and Fanshawe College says most of its grads find work within 6 months.
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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.
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 $54,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $40,000 at the lower end to about $75,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 2 years after high school, on the usual route.
$8,000 to $14,000 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
$54,000
Lower end
$40,000
Upper end
$75,000
Job Bank's national median is $26 an hour, about $54,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower and upper ends are Job Bank's low and high wages for everyone in the group, $19 and $36.06 an hour. Job Bank pools this job with other social and community service workers, so treat it as a rough guide. Agency wages in Ontario are set partly by provincial funding.
$35 an hour
The median in Nunavut, the highest in Canada
The Northwest Territories follow at $32 and Yukon at $30. Manitoba's median is the lowest, at $21. Community living agencies and group homes hire most new grads. Many start on part-time or relief contracts and pick up hours at more than one agency.
Roughly, all in
$8,000 to $14,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the two year college diploma at a school like Fanshawe, about $7,200 in tuition in total, plus mandatory fees, a police check, CPR and first aid tickets and immunizations before your placement. The high end is a costlier college with fuller fees, textbooks and supplies across both years. Crisis intervention and medication training is usually paid for by the employer once you are working. Placements are unpaid, though many students pick up paid relief shifts at the agency where they are placed, which offsets part of the cost.
One of the cheapest health-adjacent diplomas. Placements are unpaid, but many students get paid relief shifts at their placement agency.
Union coverage
Most Ontario developmental services agencies are unionized, with health benefits and a pension plan.
Shift premiums
Group homes run around the clock; overnights and weekends pay extra.
Overtime
Extra shifts are often available.
School-year schedule
Educational assistant jobs in schools come with summers off.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One of the fastest routes into health and social services.
High school
Grade 12
Grade 12 English is the standard requirement. Volunteer with Special Olympics, Best Buddies or a local community living agency.
College diploma
1 to 2 years
The Developmental Services Worker program is a 2-year Ontario college diploma. Other provinces offer 1-year certificates or 2-year disability studies diplomas. Courses cover disabilities, positive behaviour support, health, counselling and advocacy.
Field placement
Built into the program
Fanshawe's program includes nearly 700 hours of community placement, including evening shifts.
First job
Weeks to months
Most grads are hired within months as direct support professionals, case coordinators or educational assistants.
English
Daily notes, support plans and incident reports.
Biology and health
Medications, seizures, feeding and personal care.
Psychology or family studies
Behaviour and development.
Physical education
The job is on your feet and sometimes involves lifting and transfers.
No province licenses developmental services workers, and there is no protected title. Employers decide what they need: most want the diploma, a vulnerable sector police check, first aid and crisis intervention training. Ontario funds adult services through regional Developmental Services Ontario offices, which is where most agency jobs sit.
Quebec has no developmental services worker diploma. Support for people with an intellectual disability is done by éducateurs spécialisés (special educators), trained in a 3 year CEGEP (public college) program.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
The program has no specific high school course requirements, only the general CEGEP (public college) admission rules. Volunteer work with people with special needs helps your application.
Special Education Techniques DEC (Diploma of College Studies), 351.A1
3 years
Techniques d'éducation spécialisée in French. 3 years and 2,745 hours, offered at more than 30 colleges. In English at Vanier College and the private LaSalle College.
Supervised internships
During the program
Vanier's program has 3 supervised placements. Ask for one in a day program, group home or rehabilitation centre, where much of this work happens. You need a police check first.
Get hired
After graduating
Group homes, day programs, rehabilitation centres, long-term care and community groups hire graduates. Employers ask for the DEC (Diploma of College Studies), and no licence is needed.
Quebec government figures for special educators and instructors of people with disabilities, the group these jobs fall under.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Behaviour therapy or autism intervention
A graduate certificate in autism and behavioural science can move you into instructor therapist roles.
Dual diagnosis training
Supporting people with both a developmental disability and a mental illness. Hospitals and specialized teams want it.
Degree in disability studies or social work
Needed for supervisor, case management and policy jobs.
Medication administration and first aid instructor
Agencies value them.
A driver's licence and clean abstract
You will drive clients to work, appointments and outings in agency vans.
Sign language or communication tools
Many clients do not communicate with speech.
Cooking and basic life skills
You teach them and do them.
Patience with paperwork
Every shift ends with documentation.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In a group home: help residents get up, medications, breakfast, then out to a day program, a job or an appointment. Afternoons might be groceries, a walk, a medical visit or a community outing. Dinner, evening routines, charting. Overnight shifts are quieter but you are awake. In a school, you are attached to a student with complex needs for the whole day. A good day looks like nothing happened. That is the point.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Ontario closed its last large institutions for people with developmental disabilities in 2009. The work moved into small group homes, supported apartments and family homes in every town, which is why developmental services workers are needed everywhere, not just in cities.
Job Bank counted about 155,600 social and community service workers in Canada in 2023, the group this job belongs to, and expects a strong risk of a shortage of them through 2033.
The field has deliberately shifted its language from caring for people to supporting them. The diploma teaches person-directed support: the person with the disability sets the goals, and the worker helps them get there.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Mental health first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
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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