Fit and sell glasses and contact lenses from a prescription. Two years of college, a licence in every province, and a job that is half health care, half retail.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$59,000
New grad or student
$37,000
Manager or owner
$82,000
Job Bank's national median is $28.50 an hour, about $59,000 a year full time, with a range of $17.80 to $39.40. The low end is close to minimum wage because the code includes students and unlicensed sales staff at big chains. Licensed opticians with contact lens certification and a few years in sit in the middle to upper part of the range.
$18 to $23 an hour
About $37,000 to $48,000 a year at full-time hours
Many students work in an optical store while they study, which is how the NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) program is built. Chains often add commission on frame and lens sales.
$35 to $40 an hour
Roughly $73,000 to $82,000 a year for store managers, contact lens specialists and owners
Owning an independent optical store is where the real upside is. Frames and lenses carry high margins, and an established store can pay well above this range.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year public college diploma at the cheaper end, a basic tool kit, both NACOR (National Alliance of Canadian Optician Regulators) exams and your first year of provincial registration. The high end is the same program at a higher tuition college with a fuller kit. Most students work in an optical store while they study, so a lot of people finish with little or no debt. Registration is an annual fee for as long as you work.
Roughly $12,000 to $20,000 total. Because most students work in a store during the program, many finish with little or no debt.
Chains
Health plan, vacation pay, staff discounts on eyewear, sometimes commission.
Independent stores and clinics
Varies. Often a small health plan and free glasses.
Regular hours
Retail hours, so some evenings and Saturdays, but no nights or on-call.
Ownership
Opening a store is realistic within 10 years for many opticians.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A two-year diploma, supervised hours, then national exams.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 English and math, plus a science. Georgian College asks for biology, chemistry or physics.
Opticianry diploma
2 years
2 years. Georgian College in Ontario runs a co-op version. NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) delivers the theory online while you work in an optical store. Optics, lens design, frame fitting, contact lenses, and the business of eyewear.
Supervised practice
During and after the program
In Ontario you register as an intern optician and log 1,000 hours of supervised dispensing and 250 eyeglass fittings before the exam.
NACOR (National Alliance of Canadian Optician Regulators) exams
After your hours
A national eyeglasses exam, and a separate contact lens exam if you want to fit contacts. $875 each.
Register with your provincial college
A few weeks
For example the College of Opticians of Ontario. Then you can use the title and dispense on your own.
Math
Required. Lens calculations every day.
Physics
Optics is physics: how light bends through a lens.
Biology
The anatomy of the eye.
English
Required. You explain, advise and sell.
Optician is a protected title across Canada, with a regulatory college in each province. Only a licensed optician (or an optometrist or physician) may dispense glasses or contact lenses from a prescription. Everyone writes the same national NACOR (National Alliance of Canadian Optician Regulators) exams, so a licence moves between provinces with paperwork rather than another exam. An optician fills the prescription. An optometrist writes it. An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who treats eye disease.
A small number of colleges. Some examples:
Georgian College, Seneca Polytechnic
Ontario
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology)
Alberta, online theory with workplace practice, accredited across most provinces
Douglas College, Stenberg College
British Columbia
Collège Édouard-Montpetit
Quebec, in French
Things you don't need, but that help.
Contact lens licence
The second NACOR (National Alliance of Canadian Optician Regulators) exam. Most employers expect it, and it raises your rate.
Refraction
Extra training that lets opticians measure a prescription themselves in some provinces. Rare and valuable.
Store management
Running a chain location. The usual step up, with a salary and bonus.
Your own store
High margins on frames. The best-paid version of the job.
A retail or customer service job
Half the job is helping people choose and pay for something.
Work at an optical store first
Many programs are built around it, and stores hire students.
An eye for style
Customers want someone who can tell them which frames suit their face.
Steady hands
Adjusting frames and handling lenses.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
A customer arrives with a prescription. You help them choose frames, measure where their pupils sit, explain lens options and coatings, and take the order. Later, you check the finished glasses against the prescription, adjust them to the face, and teach a first-time contact lens wearer how to put them in. Between customers: repairs, nose pads, phone calls, and stocking frames. Saturdays are the busiest day.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
People mix them up constantly. The optician fits and sells the glasses. The optometrist examines your eyes and writes the prescription. The ophthalmologist is a surgeon. Opticians train for 2 years, optometrists for about 8, ophthalmologists for 13 or more.
The Opticians Association of Canada counts a little over 5,000 members across the country. It is a small profession compared with dentistry or nursing, which is part of why licensed opticians are steadily in demand.
The NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) program is built like an apprenticeship: theory online, practice in the optical store where you already work, under a licensed optician. Students across the country enrol without moving to Edmonton.
A majority of Canadian adults wear glasses or contact lenses, and the share rises with age. Screens are pushing nearsightedness up in kids too. It is a product almost everyone buys eventually.
Last checked September 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.