Design, test and commission electrical systems beside the engineers. A two-year college diploma gets you in.
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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.
The median pay is about $74,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $50,000 at the lower end to about $115,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$7,700 to $19,400 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
$74,000
Lower end
$50,000
Upper end
$115,000
Job Bank's national median is about $35.58 an hour, roughly $74,000 a year full time. Alberta's 2023 Wage and Salary Survey puts the average for electrical and electronics technologists and technicians at $42.93 an hour, about $88,459 a year. An average is pulled up by the highest earners, so it reads higher than a median.
$38.50 an hour
The median in Saskatchewan, the highest of any province
Nova Scotia follows at $38.08 and British Columbia at $37.96. Newfoundland and Labrador's median is the lowest, at $33.33. Plant shutdowns and new-build commissioning mean long rotations and a lot of overtime, which is hard on your life outside work.
Roughly, all in
$7,700 to $19,400
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year college diploma at cheaper tuition plus the certification application, the professional practice exam at the student rate, and the first year of dues. The high end is higher tuition, a laptop strong enough to run the design software, and the full member exam rate. Student software licences usually cost nothing, so the laptop is the only equipment worth budgeting for. Graduates carry far less debt than an engineer does, for work with a Job Bank median of about $74,000 a year.
One of the cheapest routes into a technical job with a Job Bank median of about $74,000 a year. Most graduates carry far less debt than an engineer does.
Pension
Utilities and municipal power companies still run strong pension plans.
Paid overtime
Many technologist jobs are hourly, so extra hours actually show up on the cheque.
Employer-paid dues and courses
Certification fees and training are usually covered.
Boot and tool allowance
Standard on any job that puts you in a plant.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A college diploma, a job, then voluntary certification.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 math, physics and English. Most colleges ask for the courses, not a high average.
College diploma
2 years
Two years in electrical engineering technology, electronics engineering technology or instrumentation. Look for a program accredited by Technology Accreditation Canada.
First job
Right after graduation
Junior technologist at a consulting firm, a utility, a plant or a controls company. Co-op terms usually lead straight to it.
Certification
2 years after graduation
After about two years of supervised work, apply to your provincial association and pass the professional practice exam to use the C.E.T. (certified engineering technologist) title.
Optional: keep climbing
Later
Some employers pay for a degree bridge to an engineering degree, or for Alberta's professional technologist designation, which lets you stamp work inside a set scope.
Math
Required. Algebra and trigonometry run through every circuit calculation.
Physics
Required at most colleges. Electricity is physics.
Computer or technology class
Wiring, soldering and coding a microcontroller all show up again.
English
Test reports and drawings are writing, and nobody reads a sloppy one twice.
You do not need a licence to work as an electrical technologist. What is protected is the title. Provincial associations such as OACETT (Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists), ASET (Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta) and ASTTBC (Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia) grant the C.E.T. (certified engineering technologist) designation, and using it without membership is an offence. Alberta goes further with the professional technologist designation, which allows independent practice in a defined scope.
Almost every large polytechnic has a program.
Ontario
Conestoga, Mohawk, Humber, Algonquin, Fanshawe, Durham.
Alberta
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Red Deer Polytechnic.
BC (British Columbia)
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), Camosun, Okanagan College.
Prairies and Atlantic
Red River College Polytechnic, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Nova Scotia Community College.
In Quebec the technologist diploma is a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) at a CEGEP (public college), started straight after Secondary V, and it can lead directly into an engineering degree.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary IV math in the Technical and Scientific or Science sequence (or Secondary V Cultural, Social and Technical math) and Secondary IV environmental science and technology.
Electrical Engineering Technology DEC
3 years
Automation and Control (243.D0) at 20 or more CEGEPs, in English at Vanier. The Dawson version (243.F0) focuses on networks and telecommunications. Programmable Electronics (243.G0) is in French.
First job
Right after the DEC
Electrical or electronics technologist, industrial electronics technician, or automation and controls work in plants, mines and utilities. Vanier's program includes paid internships.
Optional: the T.P. (professional technologist) title
Any time after the DEC
Join the OTPQ (Ordre des technologues professionnels du Québec, the Quebec order of professional technologists) with your DEC.
Optional: engineering at ÉTS
About 4 more years
ÉTS (École de technologie supérieure) admits 243 program graduates directly into electrical engineering, with three paid 4 month internships.
You do not have to join the OTPQ (Ordre des technologues professionnels du Québec) to work: employed technicians can still help prepare engineering documents under an engineer's supervision. Since February 2024, members may do some work once reserved for engineers, such as design from complete plans and specifications, and inspection or testing plans. They cannot design for high-risk industrial sites.
Things you don't need, but that help.
PLC (programmable logic controller) programming
The single most portable skill in the field. Factories run on these.
SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems
The control rooms of utilities and pipelines.
Power systems
Substations, protection and relay settings. Utilities are short of people who know this.
Instrumentation
A second diploma or a set of tickets that pairs with electrical and is in demand in industry.
Project management
Running the schedule and budget on a plant upgrade.
Driver's licence
Site visits, substations and plants are not on a bus route.
Safety tickets
Confined space, fall protection and arc flash training are short, cheap, and expected on industrial sites.
A home electronics habit
Building things with a microcontroller before college puts you ahead in first term.
Drawing software
Reading and editing electrical drawings is daily work.
They are different jobs that share a subject. An electrician installs and maintains the physical wiring under a licence, is paid during a four-year apprenticeship, and works with their hands. A technologist designs, tests and troubleshoots systems from a desk and a plant floor, goes to college first, and needs no licence. Plenty of people do both over a career, and the combination is valuable.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Half at a desk, half on your feet. Morning: mark up a set of drawings for a new motor control centre, size cables, check a panel schedule. Midday: a supplier call about a part that is now twelve weeks out. Afternoon: out to the plant to test a circuit that keeps tripping, meter in hand, talking to the maintenance crew. End of day: write it up so the engineer can sign it.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
A technologist starts earning two years after high school, while a friend who started a four-year engineering degree at the same time is still paying tuition.
Job Bank counted about 28,500 electrical and electronics technologists and technicians in Canada in 2023, and 34% were 50 or older. It expects a moderate risk of a shortage through 2033.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Technologists first, then the rest of the field. See every career in engineering.
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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