Join metal with heat. The fastest trade to start earning in, and the tickets matter more than the diploma.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Ticketed journeyperson
$58,000
1st-year apprentice or shop welder
$40,000
Pressure or pipeline welder
$110,000
Pay depends on your tickets and where you work. A production welder in a small Ontario shop might stay near $25 an hour. Pressure welders at Alberta refineries and pipeline welders sit at the top. Rig welders who own their truck can gross $150,000 or more, before paying for the truck.
$18 to $24 an hour
First-year apprentice or fresh college graduate
Shop welding in some regions starts only a few dollars above minimum wage. Alberta, northern industrial sites and shipyards pay more from the start.
$35 to $45 an hour
Ticketed welder on structural or pressure work
Every extra CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) ticket adds to your rate, and a pressure ticket adds the most. Shutdown overtime at time and a half or double time is where the big years come from.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the apprenticeship route, which is paid work: you cover three short in school blocks and a starter kit of helmet, jacket, gloves and hand tools. The high end is a one year college welding program paid up front, a fuller kit, and paying for your own ticket tests. Employers often cover CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) ticket tests, the Canada Apprentice Loan lends up to 4,000 dollars a school block interest free, and EI (Employment Insurance) can replace some income while you are in class. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive and Completion Grants closed on March 31, 2025, so do not build a budget around them.
The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant and Apprenticeship Completion Grant closed on March 31, 2025. Check the current list on the Job Bank site before you count on any grant.
Union pension and benefits
The boilermakers, pipefitters and ironworkers unions all employ welders on industrial jobs.
Overtime at premium rates
Shutdowns and pipeline pushes run 10 to 12 hour days.
Travel and camp allowances
Remote sites pay a daily living-out allowance and often fly you in.
Own your rig
A welding truck is a business you can run yourself.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Two ways in. Both end with the same tickets.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and shop. Many high schools teach welding, and OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) lets Ontario students start apprentice hours in Grade 11 or 12.
Pick a route
Months
Route A: a 1-year college welding certificate, mostly shop time. Route B: find an employer and register a 3-year apprenticeship with your provincial trades authority.
Get your first CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) tickets
Weeks
Practical tests in each position (flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead) and each process. Employers check these, not your diploma.
Work and study
1 to 3 years
In Ontario the apprenticeship is 6,000 hours: 5,280 on the job plus 720 in school, taken as three college blocks of about 8 weeks. Alberta runs a 3-year, 3-period program. College graduates go straight to work and build hours.
Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal
After your hours
Optional in Ontario but worth it. The Red Seal endorsement lets you work in any province.
Math
Angles, fractions, and metric to imperial conversions all day.
Shop or technology classes
Welding and metalwork classes are a direct head start.
Physics
Heat, expansion and electricity are the trade.
English
Welding procedures and blueprints are documents you must follow exactly.
In Ontario you do not need a licence to work as a welder. What employers require is a current CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) ticket for the process and position of the job, and most of those are valid for 2 years before you retest. In Alberta welder is a compulsory certification trade, so there you must be a registered apprentice or hold a journeyperson certificate. The Red Seal is voluntary everywhere but is the easiest way to prove your level across provinces.
Ontario
Conestoga, Fanshawe, Mohawk, Georgian and Cambrian run 1-year welding programs and apprenticeship blocks.
Alberta
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) and Red Deer Polytechnic.
BC
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) and Okanagan College welding foundation programs.
Atlantic Canada
Nova Scotia Community College and College of the North Atlantic feed shipyards and offshore work.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pressure welding certification
Called the B pressure ticket in Alberta, issued by ABSA (Alberta Boilers Safety Association). In Ontario it goes through TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority). Opens refinery, boiler and pipeline work at the top of the pay scale.
Pipeline tickets
Tested to CSA (Canadian Standards Association) pipeline standards, usually by the pipeline owner. Rig welders live off these.
Aluminum and stainless with TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding
Slower, cleaner and better paid: aerospace, food equipment, marine.
CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) welding inspector
Three levels. A path off the floor into inspection and quality control as your body ages.
Steady hands and good eyes
Welding is fine motor control for hours. Get your eyes checked.
Driver's licence
Field jobs mean driving to sites and moving equipment.
Fitting and blueprint reading
A welder who can also fit and lay out is worth more than one who only welds.
Working at heights, confined space and WHMIS (workplace hazardous materials) certificates
Cheap day courses that industrial sites require.
In Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC many welders put a welding machine on a pickup truck and contract themselves out to pipeline and oilfield jobs at $100 to $150 an hour for the truck and welder together. The gross can pass $150,000 in a busy year. The truck, machine, insurance and fuel can cost $100,000 to set up, work dries up when oil prices fall, and you are a business owner with no paid vacation. Most rig welders spent years as an employee first.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In a fabrication shop: 7am start, read the drawing, tack the pieces together on a table, weld out, grind, repeat, mostly MIG (metal inert gas) welding on steel. Loud, warm, standing all day. On a construction site: welding beams and connections, sometimes on a lift or scaffold, in whatever weather it is. On a shutdown or pipeline: 10 to 12 hour days, every weld checked by X-ray or ultrasound, then weeks off between jobs.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Most CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) welder tickets are good for 2 years. Let them lapse and you test again, no matter how long you have welded.
Car plants weld bodies with robots. The human work left is the hard stuff: custom fabrication, repair, structural steel, pipe, and anything a robot cannot reach.
Welding stainless steel releases hexavalent chromium, a fume known to cause cancer. That is why ventilation and a fitted respirator matter more than a tough attitude.
Welder is a Red Seal trade in every province and territory. A Red Seal welder from Halifax can start in Fort McMurray without re-taking the trade exam, though the employer will still want a fresh CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau) ticket.
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.