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An apprentice cutting steel in a training shop while an instructor watches over their shoulder

Apprentices & new entrants

Don’t know where to start?
Start here.

“New to construction” is a real choice on sign-up. Tell us what you’ve done and we’ll show entry-level jobs, apprentice-friendly employers, and the road to a Red Seal.

Three ways in

Pick the door
that fits.

Fishing, warehouse, retail, the woods: it all counts as experience here. Choose the path and the matching adjusts.

  1. Explorer

    No experience, not sure which trade. Your profile lists transferable experience and trades you're curious about; the matcher shows entry-level-welcome jobs and caps nothing.

  2. Labourer first

    Construction Craft Worker is itself a designated trade, and the usual first step. Get on a site, get your tickets, see the trades up close, then register as an apprentice.

  3. Registered apprentice

    Already registered with ATCD? Set “apprentice looking for hours” and your level. Employers who sponsor apprentices filter on exactly that, and hours-friendly jobs score you higher.

The NL apprenticeship path

Four levels.
Then the Red Seal.

About 7,200 hours, administered by ATCD. You work and earn the whole way through; block training is a few weeks a year.

  1. Register as an apprentice

    Find an employer willing to sponsor you (that’s what “apprentices welcome” means on a posting), sign the agreement, and ATCD registers you at Level 1.

  2. Log hours on site

    Roughly 1,800 hours per level for most trades. Your employer signs off on the skills in your logbook as you learn them.

  3. Block training, then the level exam

    Each level has a few weeks of classroom “block” training. Pass the level exam, and your pay steps up.

  4. Journeyperson and the Red Seal

    After Level 4 you write the interprovincial Red Seal exam. Pass it and your ticket is good in every province, and your profile here gets the Red Seal mark.

Block training by level (weeks)

TradeHoursL1L2L3L4
Carpenter7,2008778
Construction Electrician7,20010987
Plumber7,2007788

Current ATCD plans of training. Other trades differ; check the trade profile on gov.nl.ca/atcd.

Typical apprentice wage ladder

Paid as a share of the journeyperson rate at your workplace (or the collective agreement).

  1. 55%Level 1
  2. 65%Level 2
  3. 75%Level 3
  4. 85%Level 4

Example: a carpenter journeyperson at $32/hr puts a Level 1 apprentice around $18/hr.

Open now

Jobs that welcome
new entrants.

Allied Construction Management· 100 Churchill Avenue Apartment Building

Formwork Carpenter

St. John's · St. John's$30–$33/hr4 positionsStarts now
Full-time3–5 yearsApprentices welcome
Posted 1w ago
Can-Am Platforms & Construction Ltd.

Carpenter Helper

St. John's · St. John's$18–$26/hr2 positionsStarts now · Not specified
Full-timeNo experience yetApprentices welcomeEntry level OK
Posted Sep 16

Employers

Sponsoring an apprentice
is one checkbox.

Tick “apprentices welcome” on a posting and it scores registered apprentices fairly instead of penalising them on experience. Filter the workforce search by level to find Level 3s and 4s close to their ticket. Free on every plan.

A supervisor and a younger worker talking beside a stack of materials on site

Your next chapter starts here

Everyone
started somewhere.

Five minutes to a profile. No experience needed to be matched with jobs that say so.