Apprentice
Learns the trade on your jobs while doing the work that does not need a ticket — and is the only sustainable answer to a shortage of journeypersons.
Who to hire
The shape of person who does this job well — and whether you should be hiring it at all yet.
Hire earlier than feels comfortable. An apprentice is cheaper per hour, raises a journeyperson's output, and takes three to five years to replace — so the business that is short of technicians in three years is the one that did not hire an apprentice today. Registration with the provincial apprenticeship authority is a formal step, not a formality.
Education
Secondary school, with trade-school intake requirements varying by province. Technical aptitude and reliability matter far more than marks.
Experience
None required; that is the point. Screen for attendance, a driver's licence where the work is mobile, and whether they can take correction without sulking.
Vertical / domain experience
None expected. The hiring question is whether your journeypersons will actually teach — an apprentice placed with someone who will not train is a wasted four years for both of you.
What it pays, roughly
$72,800 median, Canada — for Technical occupations in civil, mechanical and industrial engineering, the closest occupation Statistics Canada actually measures, measured from $65,000 to $78,707 over 93,155 people. That occupation is broader than this role, so read it as an anchor, not a salary band — and note that a startup usually pays below it in cash and above it in equity.
Credentials and certifications
What exists, who issues it, and whether it means anything for this seat. A credential is evidence of a floor, never of judgment — and in a few of these roles it is a legal requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
| Credential | Issued by | When it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Registered apprenticeship agreement | The provincial apprenticeship authority | Registration is what makes the hours count toward certification. Unregistered hours are, for certification purposes, not hours. |
| Entry-level safety tickets | Provincial OHS regulators | WHMIS and fall protection are typically required before the first site visit. |
What this role does at each stage
The same title means three different jobs depending on how much money is in the bank. Read the stage you are at, then read the next one — that is what you are hiring toward.
Usually not yet — supervising an apprentice is a real time cost, and at this stage the owner's time is the scarcest thing in the business.
One, placed with your best technician rather than your busiest. Journeyperson-to-apprentice ratios are regulated; confirm yours before you hire.
A pipeline with a schedule: school blocks planned around the season, hours logged as they happen, and a written path to ticket so they do not leave the week they get it.
Can one person hold this and something else?
The whole point of the many-hats problem: which of these jobs merge safely into one person, and which merges quietly cost you money or control.
Merges well with
An apprentice is not a merged role — they are the second half of a pair with a journeyperson, and the pairing is what the certification system is built on.
Keep separate from
Never send an apprentice to do licensed work unsupervised. It voids the work, risks the licence, and in most provinces it is an offence.
Reading a candidate
What good looks like in an hour, and what should stop the process.
Good signals
- Turns up early, twice in a row
- Asks why, not just how
- Has their own basic tools already
Red flags
- Treats the job as temporary until something better appears
- No transport in a mobile trade
- Unwilling to log hours
What this role runs on
The software categories this seat lives in, each linked to the screen of who sells it — the incumbent, the challengers and what the lock-in is.