Fit and sell glasses and contact lenses from a prescription. Two years of college (three in Quebec), a licence in every province, and a job that is half health care, half retail.
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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 $59,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $37,000 at the lower end to about $82,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 years after high school, on the usual route.
$10,500 to $20,000 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, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good 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
$59,000
Lower end
$37,000
Upper end
$82,000
Job Bank's national median is $28.50 an hour, about $59,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($17.80) and upper end ($39.40) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Chains often add commission on frame and lens sales.
$30.82 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $64,000 a year
Saskatchewan is next at $30.10 and Quebec at $30. Ontario's median is the lowest, $24.04. 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.
Roughly, all in
$10,500 to $20,000
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 $10,500 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 glasses at no charge.
Regular hours
Retail hours, so some evenings and Saturdays, but no nights or on-call.
Ownership
Some opticians go on to open their own store.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Outside Quebec: a two-year diploma, supervised hours, then national exams. Quebec has its own 3 year college route: tap Quebec route to add it.
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 in every province, each with its own regulator. Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut do not license opticians. Only a licensed optician (or an optometrist or physician) may dispense glasses or contact lenses from a prescription. Outside Quebec, which has its own exam, 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
Cégep Édouard-Montpetit
Quebec, in French, a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
Quebec trains opticians in a 3 year college program in French, not a 2 year diploma, and has its own exam.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option) and Secondary V physics. Both are required.
Optique et lunetterie DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 160.A0)
About 3 years
Optics and eyewear, once called Techniques d'orthèses visuelles. 2,670 hours at Cégep Garneau, Édouard-Montpetit or Lanaudière in L'Assomption, all in French. Includes contact lens fitting.
OODQ (Ordre des opticiens d'ordonnances du Québec) exam
After graduating
The exam of the Quebec order of opticians. 3 hours, in person in Montreal or Quebec City. Pass mark 60%, fee $57.49.
Show French, then register
A few weeks
Prove French through 3 years of schooling in French or the OQLF (Quebec French language office) exam. Then $137.97 to open your file and $906.75 in yearly dues. Renew by 1 April.
The optician DEC (Diploma of College Studies) also opens the door to the optometry doctorate at Université de Montréal, once you add college courses in chemistry, calculus and physics.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Contact lens licence
The second NACOR (National Alliance of Canadian Optician Regulators) exam. Many employers expect it.
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
You take on the business risk and keep what the store makes.
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.
Job Bank counted about 11,700 opticians in Canada in 2023, and 38% of them were 50 or older. It rates the outlook good in most provinces where it gives a rating.
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.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Dental and eye care first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
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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