Run the learning day for kids under 6. Two years of college and a licence nearly everywhere in Canada.
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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 $46,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $35,000 at the lower end to about $62,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 3 years after high school, on the usual route.
$7,800 to $13,600 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, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good 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
$46,000
Lower end
$35,000
Upper end
$62,000
Job Bank's national median is $22.30 an hour, about $46,000 a year full time. The lower and upper ends are Job Bank's low and high wages for everyone in the group, $16.95 and $30.03 an hour.
$30 an hour in Yukon
The highest median on Job Bank, about $62,000 a year at 40 hours a week
Among the provinces, British Columbia and Quebec are highest at $24 an hour and Manitoba is lowest at $18. Several provinces now set a wage floor and pay a top-up on top of what your centre pays, as part of the federal and provincial child care agreements. Ask any employer whether the top-up is already inside the rate they quote you.
Roughly, all in
$7,800 to $13,600
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Both ends are a two year college diploma, because that is what the provincial regulator asks for. The low end is cheaper tuition, a police record check for working with children, and the first registration fee. The high end is higher tuition plus books and placement costs and a higher registration fee. Some provinces and employers will pay your tuition if you agree to work for them afterwards, which can bring the real cost close to nothing.
Total debt is usually under $15,000, one of the cheapest routes into a licensed profession. Some provinces and employers will pay your tuition if you agree to work for them afterwards.
Pension in the public sector
School-board and municipal centres usually offer one. Small private centres usually do not.
Paid professional development days
No-cost or discounted child care for your own kids
A common perk at centres.
Hours that match a school day
Split shifts exist, but most centres close by 6pm and nobody works nights.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A two-year college diploma, then registration. You can be working in under three years.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 English is the main requirement. Work with young kids now: camps, babysitting, a community centre.
Early childhood education diploma
2 years
A 2-year college diploma with supervised placements in real child care rooms. Offered at almost every public college in Canada.
Register with your province
A few weeks
In Ontario you join the College of Early Childhood Educators. Other provinces issue a certificate or a level through a government branch.
First job
Weeks
Centres hire fast. Many students get an offer from their placement site before they graduate.
Move up
3 to 8 years
Room lead, then supervisor or centre director. Some go on to a degree and become a teacher.
English
You will write daily observations, learning stories and notes to parents.
Family studies or parenting courses
Direct preparation, and they count for admission.
Biology or health
Child development, nutrition and first aid all build on it.
French
French-language centres are short of staff everywhere in Canada.
Ontario has a full regulatory college, so only a registered early childhood educator may use the title and count toward the staffing ratio in a licensed centre. Most other provinces certify you through a government branch instead, often in levels: Alberta uses Levels 1, 2 and 3, and BC (British Columbia) issues an early childhood educator certificate. Assistants can work in a room without the credential, but for less money and with less say. Yukon and the Northwest Territories certify educators too. Nunavut is the exception: it has no certification, and centre staff need no formal training.
Almost every public college runs the program. A few examples:
Ontario
Sheridan, George Brown, Humber, Seneca, Algonquin, Confederation.
Western Canada
Red River College Polytechnic, Bow Valley College, Douglas College, Langara College.
Atlantic Canada
Nova Scotia Community College, Holland College, College of the North Atlantic.
Degree option
Some universities offer a 4-year early childhood degree, which helps if you later want to teach or run a program.
Quebec sets who counts as a qualified educator: a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) straight after Secondary V, or a shorter AEC (Attestation of College Studies) plus 4,992 hours of experience.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Any stream gets you into college. Work with young kids now: camps, babysitting, a community centre.
Early Childhood Education Techniques DEC (322.A1)
3 years
3 years full time, with fieldwork placements, and with no tuition at public colleges for Quebec residents. Qualifies you to work with children up to 12. In English at Vanier College.
Or the AEC (Attestation of College Studies)
Up to 2 years
Up to 2 years, often taken by adults. On its own it is not enough: you also need 4,992 hours of qualifying experience.
Or a work-study route
Varies
Work 10 to 20 hours a week in child care while you study, paid for full-time hours. It ends with the AEC plus the 4,992 hours.
Already working without the diploma?
While working
In subsidized child care, unqualified educators get a $450 bonus for every 15 credits they complete, until 1 June 2028.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Special needs resource qualification
A short college certificate that leads to resource consultant jobs, which support children with extra needs across several centres.
Infant and toddler specialty
Required in BC (British Columbia) to work with children under 3, and useful anywhere.
Montessori or Reggio Emilia training
Opens jobs at private schools and specialty centres.
French-language certification
French centres and school boards hire quickly across the country.
First aid and infant CPR
Required by most centres. Take it before you apply.
Experience with kids before college
Camps, coaching, babysitting. It makes placements much easier.
Driver's licence
Home visiting and resource consultant roles need one.
In every province you can run a licensed or licence-exempt home child care business. You set the fees and the hours, and you keep what is left after expenses. The trade-offs are real: your house is your workplace, sick days cost you money, and licensed home care comes with inspections, ratio limits and record keeping. Many educators do this after a few years in a centre, once they know the job and have families who would follow them.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Open the room before the first drop-off. Greet families, then open play, snack, an outdoor block whatever the weather, lunch, nap, and the same again in the afternoon. Between all of it you are watching, writing down what kids do and turning it into next week's activities. Diapers, spills and conflict are part of the day. It ends when the last parent arrives, and you have real conversations with families every single day.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Quebec launched heavily subsidized child care in 1997, starting at $5 a day. It became the model the rest of the country argued about for 25 years before the national child care agreements were signed.
Ontario full-day kindergarten rooms are run by a certified teacher and a registered early childhood educator working as a team. It is one of the few places in Canada where the two professions share a classroom by law.
New child care spaces are being funded faster than trained educators can be hired to staff them. Centres across Canada have rooms sitting closed because they cannot find qualified staff.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Early years and support first, then the rest of the field. See every career in education.
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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