The hands-on half of every engineering office. A 2 or 3 year college diploma, then drafting, testing and site work.
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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 $70,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $106,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 5 years after high school, on the usual route.
$6,900 to $21,900 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
$70,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$106,000
These are Job Bank's figures for civil engineering technologists and technicians across Canada (2023 to 2024): $22.00 an hour at the low end, $33.89 median and $51.10 at the high end, about $46,000, $70,000 and $106,000 a year at 40 hours a week. Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians are close, with a median of $35.00 an hour, about $73,000 a year.
$38 an hour
The median for civil technologists in British Columbia, the highest in Canada
Yukon follows at $36.74 and Saskatchewan at $36. Newfoundland and Labrador's median is the lowest, at $29. Estimating, inspection and project coordination are common next steps for experienced technologists. Overtime on site work adds up.
Roughly, all in
$6,900 to $21,900
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year college diploma at Ontario prices plus the certified engineering technologist application, the professional practice exam, and the first year of association dues. The high end is a three year diploma at a polytechnic in Alberta or British Columbia, where tuition runs higher, with the same fees on top. This costs less than an engineering degree and is at least a year shorter. The certification fees are small next to the tuition, so where you study matters far more than which association you join.
Less than an engineering degree costs, and at least a year shorter. Ontario colleges charge less than the Alberta and BC (British Columbia) polytechnics.
Health and dental
Overtime
On site and testing work.
Pension
In municipalities and utilities.
Vehicle or mileage
For field roles.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A college diploma, not a degree. Then 2 years of work and a certification exam.
High school
Grade 12
Grade 12 with a college-level math and a science. Admission averages are lower than for engineering degrees; check each college.
College diploma
2 to 3 years
2 years for a technician diploma, 3 for a technologist advanced diploma. Civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical or environmental. Many include co-op.
Work
2 years
Get hired at an engineering firm, contractor, utility or manufacturer. Drafting, testing, surveying, inspection.
Certification
After 2 years of experience
Apply to your provincial association, such as OACETT (Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists). Pass a professional practice exam and submit a technology report. You can now use the title CET (certified engineering technologist).
Math
Grade 12 college or university math is required.
Physics or chemistry
One science is usually required.
Technological design or shop
Drafting and hands-on courses map straight onto the job.
English
You will write reports and read specifications every day.
You do not need a licence to work as a technologist, but the title CET (certified engineering technologist) is protected in Ontario, Alberta and other provinces. Certification is run by a provincial association: OACETT (Ontario's technologist association), ASET (Alberta's) and ASTTBC (BC's), and it transfers between provinces. You cannot call yourself an engineer or sign engineering drawings on your own.
Ontario
Conestoga, Mohawk, Seneca, Humber, Algonquin, Fanshawe, George Brown, Sheridan.
Alberta
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology).
BC (British Columbia)
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology).
Elsewhere
Red River College Polytechnic, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Nova Scotia Community College, and Quebec colleges (called cégeps).
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 the professional title comes from a Quebec order instead of a technologist association.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Check each program. Civil Engineering Technology at Dawson asks for Secondary V math in the Technical and Scientific or Science sequence. Mechanical asks for Secondary IV math and Secondary V physics.
Pick an engineering technology DEC
3 years
Civil (221.B0), Mechanical (241.A0), Electrical, Automation and Control (243.D0) or Industrial (235.B0) Engineering Technology. In English, civil and mechanical at Dawson, electrical at Vanier.
First job
Right after the DEC
Technologist in engineering offices, municipalities, construction companies and plants. Many programs, such as Vanier's, include 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 an eligible DEC.
Optional: engineering at ÉTS
About 4 more years
ÉTS (École de technologie supérieure) admits graduates of many technical DECs directly into its engineering degrees, with three paid 4 month internships.
You do not need the OTPQ (Ordre des technologues professionnels du Québec, the Quebec order of professional technologists) to be hired, but only its members may use the T.P. (professional technologist) title. Since February 2024, members may do some work once reserved for engineers, such as certain calculations, detailed design from complete documents signed by an engineer, and inspection or testing plans. They cannot design for very high-risk industrial sites.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Bridge to an engineering degree
Lakehead and Ontario Tech, among others, give technologists advanced standing. A 3-year diploma plus about 2 more years can equal an engineering degree, and then the P.Eng (professional engineer) path opens.
P.Tech (professional technologist) in Alberta
Lets experienced technologists sign off on work within a defined scope. A step above CET (certified engineering technologist).
Limited licence in Ontario
Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) grants experienced technologists a limited licence to practise within a defined scope.
Specialty tickets
Surveying, concrete and asphalt testing, building inspection, PLC (programmable logic controller) programming.
CAD (computer-aided design) skills
AutoCAD, Revit, SolidWorks. Employers hire the people who already know them.
A driver's licence
Most field roles require one.
Summer work with a contractor or survey crew
The co-op option at your college
Most of the job offers come from co-op employers.
Two years gets you a technician diploma and a job. Three gets you the technologist advanced diploma and the CET (certified engineering technologist) path. About two more at a bridging university gets you an engineering degree. Each step is a real job you can stop at. Some people do all three over a decade, paid the whole way.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Civil technologist on a road project: on site by 7 with the survey gear, laying out grades and checking the contractor's work against the drawings. Sampling asphalt and concrete for the lab. Back in the office by 3 to update drawings in CAD (computer-aided design) software and write up quantities. Mechanical and electrical technologists spend more time at a desk, drafting, testing prototypes or programming controls in a plant.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank counted about 27,400 civil engineering technologists and technicians in Canada in 2023 and expects a moderate risk of a shortage of them through 2033.
On a highway or bridge job, the person setting out the lines that everything else follows is usually a civil technologist. If the layout is wrong, the whole structure is wrong.
Most of the drawings and 3D models that engineers seal are produced by technologists. Fluency in CAD (computer-aided design) software is the fastest way to become the person the office cannot do without.
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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