Cut, shape and fit steel into bridges, tanks and buildings. A Red Seal trade you earn while you 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.
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 4,680 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $84,006 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 $60,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $44,000 at the lower end to about $90,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
3 to 4 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$500 to $3,500 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.
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
$60,000
Lower end
$44,000
Upper end
$90,000
Job Bank's national median is $29 an hour, about $60,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($21) and upper end ($43.30) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Apprentices are paid from day one, at a share of the journeyperson rate that rises each level; in Ontario no share is set in law, and it can never be below the minimum wage.
$35 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $73,000 a year
Alberta is next at $33, and Manitoba has the lowest median, $24. Overtime is common when a shop has a big contract.
Roughly, all in
$500 to $3,500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship, so there is no tuition to find and you earn from the first day. The low end is somebody whose employer or union covers the in school blocks and who builds a tool kit slowly. The first certification exam try is free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is paying the few hundred dollars a level yourself across three levels, buying a full tool set and boots, and sitting the Red Seal exam. The Canada Apprentice Loan charges no interest on up to 4,000 a school period, and EI (Employment Insurance) is available during class blocks.
Paid on the job from the start, so most apprentices finish with little or no debt.
Union pension and health plan
Boilermaker and ironworker union shops offer strong plans.
Overtime at time and a half
Big projects run long weeks.
Tool and boot allowance
Common at larger shops.
Travel and living-out pay
On site work at mines, plants and shipyards.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
An apprenticeship. Most of your training is in the shop, paid.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math, shop and drafting. Some provinces let you start through a youth apprenticeship program.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A fabrication shop, shipyard or union that takes you on. A pre-apprenticeship or welding certificate helps you get noticed.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With your provincial trades authority, such as Skilled Trades Ontario or Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training.
Work and study
3 to 4 years
In Ontario, 5,400 hours: 4,680 on the job and 720 in school over three levels. Other provinces run similar three-level programs.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal is recognized in nine provinces.
Math
Geometry and trigonometry for layout. You will calculate angles and bends every day.
Technological design or drafting
Reading and making blueprints is half the trade.
Manufacturing or welding shop
Hands-on time with metal before you apply.
Physics
Loads, strength and heat.
Metal Fabricator (Fitter) is a non-compulsory trade: you can legally work in a shop without a certificate. But it has been a Red Seal trade since 1991, and certified fabricators can move between provinces without retesting. Employers doing structural steel, pressure vessels and shipbuilding usually want the ticket, and welding on those jobs needs separate welder certification.
In Quebec the trade is called metal structure assembler, you take a vocational diploma first, and the apprenticeship after it is a voluntary workplace program run by the Quebec government.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in metal fabrication needs a high school diploma, or age 16 with Secondary III language, second language and math.
DEP 5308, Fabrication de structures métalliques et de métaux ouvrés
About 13 months
Metal structures and wrought metal: 1,350 hours of layout, cutting, fitting and welding beams, columns, stairs and railings. In French only, in Québec City, Chaudière-Appalaches and Saint-Hyacinthe.
Or Welding and Assembly in English (5882)
About 17 months
The closest DEP taught in English, 1,800 hours. It replaced Welding and Fitting (5695) in 2025. Check the Quebec vocational training site (Inforoute) for the English centres running it this year.
Get hired in a fabrication shop
Weeks to months
Structural steel and heavy sheet metal shops hire graduates.
Workplace apprenticeship, if you want it
About 2 years with training
Your employer can enrol you in Quebec's workplace apprenticeship for metal frame assembler. You must be 16 and employed. It leads to a voluntary certificate of professional qualification.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
With the Quebec certificate you can apply for the Metal Fabricator (Fitter) Red Seal exam. Quebec lists the trade as assembler, metal structure, or welder-fitter.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Welder certification
Most fabricators weld. A CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) ticket or pressure welding ticket adds job options.
Boilermaker or ironworker
Related Red Seal trades that put fabrication skills on site, often at union rates.
CNC (computer numerical control) cutting and press brake
Programming plasma tables and brakes moves you off the floor.
Blueprint and CAD (computer-aided design) skills
Detailers and shop supervisors come from the fabrication floor.
Pre-apprenticeship or welding certificate
A college semester that makes shops willing to sponsor you.
Forklift and overhead crane tickets
You move heavy steel all day.
Spatial thinking
Turning a flat drawing into a three-dimensional part in your head is the core skill.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at 7am in the shop. Read the drawing, lay out the part on plate or beam, mark it, then cut it with a plasma torch, saw or shear. Bend, roll or drill as needed. Fit the pieces together with clamps and tack welds, checking every dimension with a tape and square. Hand it to a welder or finish the welds yourself. Big parts move with an overhead crane. Some jobs send you to site to fit steel into a building, tank or ship.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Red Seal fabricator exam hands you the list of math formulas when you write it. What it checks is whether you know which one to use and can do the layout.
Metal Fabricator (Fitter) has been a Red Seal trade since 1991 in nine provinces. Manitoba and the three territories do not take part.
Job Bank counted only about 4,300 metal fabricators in Canada in 2023, and 28% of them were 50 or older.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Metal and machining 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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