Wire homes, buildings and industry. Earn a paycheque from your first year of training.
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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.
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 7,950 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $142,703 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
Skilled Trades Ontario's trade page says 840 hours in class, but its newer curriculum sets 1,050 over 4 levels, so this uses the newer figure. The curriculum (opens in a new tab)
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 6,390 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $114,701 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 $73,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $42,000 at the lower end to about $100,000 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.
$2,700 to $6,350 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
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
$73,000
Lower end
$42,000
Upper end
$100,000
Job Bank's figures for electricians across Canada: $20, $35 and $48 an hour, worked out at 40 hours a week for a full year. They include apprentices. Many union electricians (members of the IBEW, the electrical workers' union) also have a pension.
A share of the full rate
First-year apprentices earn a part of the journeyperson rate, rising every level
Apprentices are usually paid a share of the journeyperson rate that rises with each level. In Ontario no share is set in law: your sponsor agrees your rate, often in a union or company agreement, and it can never be below the minimum wage.
$41.30 an hour
The median in Quebec, the highest in Canada
The Northwest Territories follow at $40.55 and Alberta at $38. Prince Edward Island's median is the lowest, at $26.44. Overtime is common in construction and pays time and a half. Self-employed electricians set their own rates and carry the business risk.
Roughly, all in
$2,700 to $6,350
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
An apprenticeship is paid work, so there is no tuition year to find. The low end is Ontario, where Level 1 class is free for classes from January 2026 and the first certificate of qualification exam try is free once your apprenticeship is complete, so you pay for three more blocks at the cheap end and a tool kit built up slowly. The high end is more expensive blocks, a fuller tool kit bought sooner, and the same exam. The Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to $4,000 per block with no interest and Employment Insurance pays while you are in class, so most apprentices finish with money in the bank rather than debt.
Because you are paid on the job, most apprentices finish with money in the bank instead of student debt.
Defined-benefit pension
IBEW (the electrical workers' union) locals run some of the strongest pension plans in the trades.
Health and dental
Overtime at time and a half or double time
Travel and living-out allowances
On remote industrial jobs.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship, not a degree. About 80% on the job, 20% in class.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and physics is ideal. Some provinces let you start earlier through a youth apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
An employer or union that will take you on as an apprentice. This is the hardest step. Pre-apprenticeship college programs help you get noticed.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With your provincial trades authority, for example Skilled Trades Ontario or Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training.
Work and study
4 to 5 years
9,000 hours in Ontario: 8,160 on the job and 840 in class. Classroom training is moving from three levels to four between 2024 and 2026. Other provinces run 4 periods of roughly 1,500 to 1,800 hours each.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
At the end of the apprenticeship
Once your work hours and school blocks are done, you write the provincial exam. Pass it and you get your Certificate of Qualification, the licence to work as an electrician. The Red Seal endorsement on it lets you work in any province.
Math
You will use algebra and trig constantly for load calculations.
Physics
Electricity is physics.
Technology or shop classes
Shows hands-on ability.
English
Reading the electrical code is a big part of the job.
In every province you must be a registered apprentice or a licensed electrician to do electrical work. In the three territories the electrical safety laws do the same job: only qualified electricians who are registered or licensed there can take out a permit for the work. Working unlicensed can bring fines. The Red Seal endorsement, earned by passing an interprovincial exam, lets you move between provinces without re-testing.
In Quebec the classroom part comes first, as a vocational diploma, and the construction commission decides who can work on a site.
Secondary III and IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Electricity does not need a high school diploma. You need Secondary III language and Secondary IV math, and you can start at 16. Some centres ask for more Secondary IV courses, so check with yours.
DEP in Electricity
About 17 months
1,800 hours at a public vocational centre, about 30 hours a week. In French at many centres. In English at the Pearson Electrotechnology Centre in Lachine and at Institut technique Aviron de Montréal, a private school.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). You need the DEP, an employer registered with the CCQ who guarantees you at least 150 hours of work, the construction site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
About 3 years
Four periods of 2,000 hours, 8,000 in all. The DEP counts as 2,700 of them, which leaves about 5,300 hours of paid site work and no more school blocks.
Qualification exam
Near the end
3 hours, 60 questions, 60% to pass. You can sit it once 85% of your hours are done. Pass and you become a journeyperson (compagnon), and the certificate is issued at no charge.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Optional in Quebec. A separate interprovincial exam that makes it simpler to work in other provinces.
Secondary IV math, any sequence
CST (Cultural, Social and Technical), TS (Technical and Scientific) or SN (Science). Any of them gets you in. TS or SN gives you more of the algebra and trigonometry used in load calculations.
Secondary III language of instruction
French, or English for the English program. The minimum for admission.
Secondary IV science and technology
Not required, but electricity is physics and it helps.
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) has no tuition at public vocational centres for Quebec residents, though centres charge for materials, about $760 at one centre. You are not paid while you study, pay starts with the apprenticeship. Union membership is compulsory for everyone working in Quebec construction. To run your own electrical business you join the CMEQ (Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec) and hold its contractor licence.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Master Electrician licence
Needed to run your own contracting business in most provinces. Extra exam after a few years as a journeyperson.
Industrial electrician (a second trade)
Factories and plants. Job Bank's median for industrial electricians is $42 an hour, against $35 for electricians.
Instrumentation or PLC (programmable logic controller) training
Automation skills are in short supply.
Solar and EV (electric vehicle) charger installation
Growing fast, short courses available.
Pre-apprenticeship program
A college semester or two that makes employers more willing to sponsor you.
Driver's licence
Nearly every employer requires one.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials) certificates
Cheap, one-day courses employers like to see.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Early start, often 7am on site. Reading drawings, running conduit and cable, installing panels, lights and outlets, then testing everything. Residential work means new homes and renovations. Commercial and industrial means bigger systems, bigger crews and often more overtime. Service electricians drive between calls fixing problems.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Red Seal program covers more than 50 trades and lets a certified tradesperson work anywhere in Canada. Construction Electrician is one of the most popular Red Seal trades and every province and territory takes part.
Job Bank counted about 119,300 electricians in Canada in 2023 and expects a moderate risk of a shortage through 2033, as more of the economy moves to electric heating and cars.
The Canadian Electrical Code is updated every three years. Electricians are tested on it, and every job must follow it. Ontario and Quebec have their own amendments.
Only a few percent of electricians in Canada are women. In Quebec construction in 2025, 860 women worked as electricians, 3.6% of the trade, says the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). Programs like Women Building Futures in Alberta are trying to change that with training at no cost.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Electrical and energy first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked November 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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