Install the glass on towers, storefronts and homes, from a shower door to a 40-storey curtain wall.
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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 7,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $130,676 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)
The median pay is about $63,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $90,000 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.
$1,600 to $8,200 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 Quebec. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited 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
$63,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$90,000
Job Bank's national median is $30.16 an hour, about $63,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low and high are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group, from $22.00 to $43.09 an hour.
$22.10 an hour
Average starting wage for glaziers in Alberta, about $46,000 a year
From the 2023 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, published by alis, Alberta's career information site. Apprentices are paid from day one and get a raise at each level. In Ontario no rate is set in law: your sponsor agrees on it, often in a union or company agreement, and it can never be below the minimum wage.
$35.00 an hour
The median in Quebec, the highest of the provinces Job Bank reports, about $73,000 a year
Ontario's median is $30.00 and Alberta's $28.00. On Quebec construction sites, the collective agreements pay a journeyperson glazier $45.07 to $50.22 an hour from August 2026.
Roughly, all in
$1,600 to $8,200
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The apprenticeship is paid work, so there is no tuition bill to find, only the in school blocks (three in Ontario, four in Alberta) at $400 to $1,500 each depending on the province. The low end is Ontario, where Level 1 class is free for classes from January 2026 and the first certificate exam try is free once your apprenticeship is complete, so you pay for two blocks at the cheapest rate and a basic set of hand tools and suction cups. The high end is pricier blocks, a fuller tool kit including a harness, and the same exam. Most glaziers finish with no debt, helped by the Canada Apprentice Loan, which charges no interest on up to $4,000 a block, and EI (Employment Insurance) while you are in class. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so check what is currently open on the Government of Canada apprenticeship page.
Most glaziers finish with no debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025. The new federal Red Seal Completion Bonus pays $5,000 if you finish your apprenticeship and get certified in a Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025. Applications open November 16, 2026.
Union pension and health plan
IUPAT (the painters and glaziers' union) represents many commercial glaziers, with pension, health and dental plans.
Overtime at premium rates
Common on towers.
Year-round work
Less seasonal than most outdoor trades. Winter storefront and interior glass keeps going.
Company vehicle
Common for service glaziers doing repairs and replacements.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A four-year apprenticeship, one of the longer construction trades.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and shop. Some provinces let you start through a high school apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A glass and glazing contractor, a window manufacturer or the union hall. Shop helper is a common first job.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario (where the trade is called Architectural Glass and Metal Technician), Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's trades body.
Work and study
4 years
About 8,000 hours in Ontario: 7,280 on the job plus 720 hours in class, in three levels at a college. Alberta runs four years with 6 weeks of class in each.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work in any province.
Math
Measuring openings to the millimetre, angles, and reading shop drawings.
Physics
Wind loads, thermal expansion and why glass breaks.
Technological design or drafting
Glazing is drawn in detail before anything is cut.
Construction technology or shop
Tool skills and safety habits.
Glazier is a compulsory trade only in Quebec, where you need a competency certificate from the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) on construction sites. In the rest of Canada, including Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, you can work without a certificate, though big commercial contractors and union sites expect one. The Red Seal endorsement transfers between provinces.
In Quebec glazing is a CCQ (Quebec construction commission) trade called erector mechanic (glazier), and the vocational diploma comes before the apprenticeship.
Secondary V, or Secondary IV at 16
From age 16
You need a high school diploma, or be 16 with Secondary IV language, second language and math.
DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Glass Product Installation and Fabrication (5282)
About 17 months
1,350 hours. The CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) lists Laval as the region that offers it.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
From the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec). You need the DEP, an employer registered with the CCQ who guarantees 150 hours of work within 3 months, the site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
6,000 hours
Three periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all, on CCQ sites. Part of your DEP hours count toward them.
Provincial qualification exam
End of apprenticeship
Pass it and you become a journeyperson (compagnon) with a journeyperson competency certificate.
Figures from the CCQ (Quebec construction commission) trade sheet. Women entering the trade do not need the 150 hour job guarantee.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam, recognized across Canada.
Curtain wall and unitized systems
Hanging the whole glass skin of a tower, panel by panel, from a crane.
Suspended access and swing stage tickets
Needed to work from the outside of a tower.
Shop fabrication
Cutting, tempering and assembling sealed units. Indoor and steady.
Estimating and project management
Glass contractors promote from the tools. This is the office path.
Working at heights and WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System)
Short safety courses that employers expect before you work on a tower.
Comfort at height
Setting glass from a swing stage 30 floors up is normal on commercial work.
Driver's licence
Sites and service calls move daily.
Care and precision
Glass does not forgive a rough measurement or a dropped corner.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site by 7am. On a tower, the crane lifts a glass panel weighing hundreds of kilograms, you guide it into the frame with suction cups, anchor it and seal it, then the next one. On a storefront, cut and set aluminum framing, then lift in the glass. In a shop, measure, cut and build sealed units. Service glaziers drive between broken windows and shower door installs. Done by 3:30pm unless a deadline is close.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
In 2025, 93% of the hours Quebec's construction glaziers worked were on institutional and commercial buildings such as offices, schools and stores. Homes were 6%.
Only 33 women worked as glaziers on Quebec construction sites in 2025, 1.2% of the 2,745 in the trade.
On Quebec commercial sites, a first-period apprentice glazier earns $29.76 an hour from August 2026. By the third period it is $42.16, and a journeyperson earns $49.60.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Construction first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
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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