Bolt up the steel skeleton of towers and bridges, or tie the rebar inside concrete. Paid from day one, high risk, 2 to 4 years to certify.
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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 5,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $94,776 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)
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)
You are paid from your first day. Over the 3,640 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $65,338 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 $89,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $60,000 at the lower end to about $104,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,600 to $6,650 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 and 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
$89,000
Lower end
$60,000
Upper end
$104,000
Job Bank's national median for ironworkers is $43 an hour, about $89,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end is $29 an hour and the upper end $49.80. The range covers everyone in the group.
60% of the journeyperson rate
What a new apprentice earns at Ironworkers Local 721 in Toronto, rising to 90% by 6,000 hours
The rate steps up every 1,000 hours: 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, then 90%. 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.
$44.34 an hour
The median in Ontario, about $92,000 a year, the highest in Canada
Quebec is almost the same at $44.23, and Newfoundland and Labrador is next at $41.09. Manitoba is lowest at $35.00. Overtime on towers and shutdowns is paid on top.
Roughly, all in
$1,600 to $6,650
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Paid work from day one, so 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 two levels at the cheaper rate or through a union training centre and a basic kit of spud wrench, bolt bag, harness and boots. The high end is the dearer provincial rate for all three levels with a fuller kit. The Canada Apprentice Loan charges no interest and EI (Employment Insurance) can cover you during class blocks. Most ironworkers finish their apprenticeship with savings rather than debt.
Most ironworkers finish with money saved, not debt. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant and Completion Grant closed on March 31, 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
Union locals run pension, health and dental plans for their members.
Overtime paid at a premium rate
Travel, camp and living-out pay
Common on remote industrial jobs.
Union training centre
Welding, rigging and safety upgrading for members.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship: two to four years of paid site work with short school blocks.
High school
Grade 10 to 12
Ontario's minimum is Grade 10, and union locals take apprentices from age 18. Math and shop help. You must be comfortable at height and physically strong.
Get into the union hall or a contractor
Weeks to months
Most ironworkers are union. Toronto's Local 721 gives applicants a mechanical aptitude and math test. Non-union steel erectors and rebar contractors also sponsor.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's trades body. Pick a stream: generalist, structural, or reinforcing.
Work and study
2 to 4 years
In Ontario, structural and ornamental is 6,000 hours: 5,280 on the job and 720 in school over three levels. Generalist is 8,000 hours and reinforcing 4,000.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal endorsement lets you follow the work to any province.
Math
Reading steel drawings, bolt patterns, rigging loads.
Physics
Loads, leverage and why a crane pick can go wrong.
Welding or metal shop
Welding is a big part of structural work.
Physical education
Steel and rebar are heavy, and you climb all day. Get fit early.
Ironworker is a compulsory trade in Alberta, and in Quebec ironworking needs a CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) certificate on construction sites. In Ontario, British Columbia and the rest of Canada it is voluntary, but union sites and big general contractors expect certification. There are three Red Seal ironworker trades: Generalist, Structural/Ornamental (steel beams, stairs, railings) and Reinforcing (rebar inside concrete). The Red Seal endorsement transfers between provinces.
Quebec splits the work into two construction trades, each with its own vocational diploma: ironworker (monteur-assembleur) and reinforcing steel erector (ferrailleur).
Secondary III courses
From age 16
Both DEPs (Diplomas of Vocational Studies) need Secondary III language of instruction, second language and math, and you must be 16. A high school diploma also gets you in.
Pick a diploma
5 to 11 months
Structural and Architectural Assembly (5364): 1,230 hours, about 11 months. Installation of Concrete Reinforcement (5076): 735 hours, about 5 months. Both at the Centre de formation des métiers de l'acier in Montreal, day or evening.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec) once you show the DEP and an employer registered with the CCQ guarantees you at least 150 hours over 3 months.
Work as an apprentice
2,000 to 6,000 hours
Ironworkers do 3 periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all. Reinforcing steel erectors do 1 period of 2,000 hours.
Qualification exam
At the end
Pass the provincial exam and the CCQ issues your journeyperson (compagnon) certificate.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Quebec takes part in the Red Seal for Ironworker (Structural/Ornamental) and Ironworker (Reinforcing), but not Ironworker (Generalist).
From the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) 2026 trade sheets, which rate job prospects for both trades as very good. The yearly averages include overtime and premiums. Both diplomas are taught in French. English versions (5864 and 5576) are listed, but no English classes were scheduled when we checked.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Red Seal endorsement
One extra exam. Lets you chase booms in Alberta or BC (British Columbia).
Welding tickets
Tested by the CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau). Structural welders are always short.
Rigging and signalling
Directing crane picks. Every crew needs a qualified signaller.
Connector
Not a ticket, a role. The most experienced ironworkers on the raising gang.
Post-tensioning
Stressing steel cables inside concrete slabs. A specialty on parking garages and towers.
Comfort at height
You will be walking beams 30 storeys up in wind. Find out early whether you can.
Strength and endurance
Rebar bundles and steel are heavy, and the work is all day.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials training)
One-day courses. Mandatory before you set foot on most sites.
Driver's licence
Sites are everywhere and shifts start early.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On site before 7am, harness on. Structural crew: the crane lifts a beam, connectors guide it in and bolt it, the bolting crew follows and torques everything, welders close it up. Reinforcing crew: carry, place and tie thousands of pieces of rebar so the slab can be poured. Cold in winter, hot on the steel in summer. Done by 3:30pm unless overtime is on.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Mohawk ironworkers from communities in Quebec, Ontario and New York State helped raise the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the George Washington Bridge. Leaving home for steel work is called booming out.
In 1907 the Quebec Bridge collapsed during construction, killing 75 workers, 33 of them Mohawk ironworkers from Kahnawake near Montreal. A second accident in 1916 killed 13 more. The bridge opened in 1917.
In 2025 only 61 women worked as ironworkers on Quebec construction sites, 1.7% of the trade. Among reinforcing steel erectors it was 34 women, 1.9%.
Reinforcing ironworkers, nicknamed rodbusters, tie the steel bars hidden inside concrete floors, columns and bridge decks. Concrete resists squeezing well but cracks when stretched, so the steel carries the pulling forces.
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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