Cut, bend and install the ducts, roofing and metal that make buildings breathe. A licensed trade in Ontario with a 5-year apprenticeship.
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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 8,280 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $148,626 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 4,140 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $74,313 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 $71,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $47,000 at the lower end to about $96,000 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.
$1,800 to $5,050 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, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate 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
$71,000
Lower end
$47,000
Upper end
$96,000
Job Bank's national figures for sheet metal workers, 2023 to 2024: a median of $34.07 an hour, about $71,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end is $22.70 an hour and the upper end is $45.95 an hour. These are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group.
$30.47 an hour
First-period apprentice in Quebec on commercial, institutional and industrial jobs, August 2026
That is 60% of the $50.79 journeyperson rate in Quebec's collective agreements, rising to 70% and then 85%. In Ontario no share is set in law: your sponsor agrees your rate, often in a union agreement, and it can never be below minimum wage.
$40 an hour
Job Bank's median in Quebec, about $83,000 a year
Ontario ($35) and Newfoundland and Labrador ($34.75) come next. New Brunswick is lowest at $27.30. Overtime is common on hospital and tower projects with tight deadlines.
Roughly, all in
$1,800 to $5,050
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
This is a paid apprenticeship of four to five years, so there is no tuition year to fund. 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 cheap blocks and a basic kit of snips, seamers and hammers. The high end is pricier blocks and a fuller tool set built up across the apprenticeship. The Canada Apprentice Loan covers up to 4,000 dollars per block with no interest and EI (Employment Insurance) fills the wage gap during class, and union training centres often cover course costs outright.
About $1,800 to $5,050 in all. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant and Apprenticeship 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 training centres often cover course costs.
Union pension and benefits
SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) locals run defined-benefit pensions and full health coverage.
Overtime at time and a half or double time
Travel and living-out allowances
On industrial jobs away from home.
Shop and field options
Fabricate indoors in winter, install on site in summer. Many companies let you move between the two.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A 5-year apprenticeship in Ontario, about 4 years in most other provinces.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math. Geometry matters more here than in any other construction trade. OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) lets Ontario students start in high school.
Find a sponsor
Weeks to months
A sheet metal or mechanical contractor, or apply to a union local such as SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) Local 30 in Toronto.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario, or your provincial trades authority. In Ontario you must be registered to legally work in the trade.
Work and study
5 years in Ontario
9,000 hours in Ontario: 8,280 on the job plus 720 in school, taken as three college or training-centre blocks of about 8 weeks. Pattern layout, fabrication, welding, installation and reading mechanical drawings.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work in any province.
Math
Geometry and trigonometry. You turn 3D shapes into flat patterns every day.
Drafting or technological design
Reading mechanical drawings is half the job.
Shop classes
Metalwork and welding.
Physics
Airflow and pressure are why ducts are shaped the way they are.
In Ontario, sheet metal work is a compulsory trade: you must be a registered apprentice or hold a Certificate of Qualification from Skilled Trades Ontario to do the work, and employers can be fined for using unlicensed people. It is compulsory in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia too, and voluntary in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories. The Red Seal endorsement, earned by passing the interprovincial exam, lets you move between provinces without re-testing.
In Quebec the trade is called tinsmith (ferblantier), you take a vocational diploma first, and the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) decides who can work on a site.
Secondary IV courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Sheet Metal Work takes a high school diploma, or age 16 with Secondary IV language, second language and math. From 18, the general development test is another way in.
DEP in Sheet Metal Work (5360)
About 15 months
1,605 hours of cutting, forming and welding sheet metal and installing ductwork, metal roofing and cladding. Offered in French in 7 regions. An English version (5860) exists, but no English group was listed for 2026 to 2027.
Apprentice competency certificate
Weeks
Issued by the CCQ. You need the DEP, an employer registered with the CCQ who guarantees at least 150 hours of work within 3 months, the 30 hour site safety course and a $100 fee.
Work as an apprentice
About 3,600 hours
Three periods of 2,000 hours, 6,000 in all. The DEP counts for its hours plus a 50% bonus, about 2,400, which leaves about 3,600 hours of paid site work.
Qualification exam
Near the end
Set by the CCQ, multiple choice, up to 3 hours. You can sit it once 85% of your apprenticeship hours are done. Pass and you become a journeyperson (compagnon).
In 2025 the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission) counted 5,764 tinsmiths on sites and admitted 516 new apprentices. Apprentices earned $37,890 on average that year, and journeypersons who worked at least 500 hours earned $87,369. Collective agreement rates in August 2026 run from $28.72 to $51.26 an hour.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Welding tickets from the CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau)
Stainless and aluminum welding for kitchen exhaust, hospital and food-plant duct.
Architectural sheet metal
Standing-seam metal roofing, copper and zinc cladding, flashing. Skilled, visible work.
Air balancing and testing
Measuring and adjusting airflow after install. A path toward technician and estimator jobs.
Foreman and estimator roles
Running crews or pricing jobs from drawings, often the next step after 10 years in the field.
Comfort with heights
Rooftop units and ceiling duct on lifts and scaffolds.
Driver's licence
Sites change every few months.
Working at heights and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials) certificates
One-day courses every site requires.
Spatial thinking
If you can picture a shape from a drawing, this trade will suit you.
Some sheet metal workers stay in the shop full time, running plasma cutters, brakes and coil lines to build duct and fittings from drawings. Indoors, steady hours, no weather. People choose between shop and field based on the life they want.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Shop days: cut and bend duct and fittings on a plasma table, shear and brake, then seam and assemble them. Field days: on a construction site by 7am, hanging duct runs from the ceiling on a scissor lift, fitting them to rooftop units and diffusers, sealing joints, reading the mechanical drawings to stay clear of pipes and wires. Roofing crews spend the day outside fitting metal panels and flashing. Loud, dusty and physical, with a lot of overhead work.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Centre Block's historic copper roof is coming off for the building's renovation. Crews had removed an area the size of one and a half hockey rinks, and a new copper roof is going on in the original design.
Alberta's sheet metal apprenticeship includes Gasfitter Class B. Apprentices write both interprovincial exams, so they can finish with two Red Seal endorsements: four periods of 1,500 work hours and 10 weeks of class each.
Skilled Trades Ontario sets the apprenticeship at 9,000 hours, about five years: 8,280 hours on the job and only 720 in school.
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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