How to start a skilled trade in Ontario

The steps

1. Check you can start: you are at least 16, allowed to work in Canada, and have the school grade the trade asks for.
2. Find a sponsor: an employer, or a group of employers such as a union, that will train you. This is the step most people find hardest.
3. Apply to Skilled Trades Ontario: online if you are 18 or older, on a paper form a parent signs if you are 16 or 17. Your sponsor signs too.
4. Sign your training agreement. You get a wallet card to carry at work, and your skills are signed off in a logbook as you learn them.
5. Work and go to class. Most of the time is paid work; every year or so you spend 8 to 12 weeks in class at a college. Where the trade has an exam, you write it at the end.

Starting an apprenticeship, from STO(opens in a new tab)

Where sponsors come from

• Your guidance counsellor, and the youth apprenticeship, Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) or dual credit programs at your school. Source (opens in a new tab)
• Employment Ontario: over 700 offices with free one-on-one help, and it matches apprentices with sponsors (1-800-387-5656). Source (opens in a new tab)
• Job Bank's apprenticeship job search for Ontario. Source (opens in a new tab)
• Unions and trade associations for the trade, college career centres and local companies. Source (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)