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Skilled trades · Building & Making

Boilermaker: what the job actually is

Building, installing and repairing boilers, tanks and pressure vessels, mostly on industrial sites, mostly in the heat and the noise.

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Boilermaker: quick facts

Boilermaker salary in Ontario: the median pay is $48.21 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years.

Median pay in Ontario
$48.21 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$31.21 to $54.21 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
Usually needs
Usually a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 72103. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Fabricating, erecting, testing and repairing the heavy steel equipment that holds pressure or heat: boilers, tanks, pressure vessels and the other large metal structures at power plants and industrial sites.
  • Skilled Trades Ontario describes the Construction Boilermaker trade, code 428A, as building, installing, erecting, testing, maintaining and repairing boilers, tanks and pressure vessels, with rigging used to get heavy parts into place.
  • A great deal of it is rigging and fit-up rather than welding. Moving a piece of steel that weighs more than a car to within a few millimetres of where the drawing wants it is a skill of its own.
  • Much of the work happens on shutdowns, when a plant stops a unit so that it can be inspected and repaired. Those are intense, scheduled, and often mean long days away from home for a few weeks at a time.
  • Job Bank's Ontario outlook for the group lists manufacturers of boilers and tanks, construction, and electric power companies as the main employers, and points to large investment in utilities including nuclear.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 5:30 — Up and on the road. The site is an hour from the motel, and the gate has a line at it.
  2. 6:30 — Safety orientation and permits for the day. Confined space entry, hot work, lifting plan. You sign things, because on a plant site nothing happens without a permit.
  3. 7:00 — Crew huddle. Who is rigging, who is fitting, who is welding, who is the signal person for the crane.
  4. 7:30 — Inside a vessel with the access cover open, in a harness, checking fit-up of a new section against the drawing.
  5. 9:30 — Break outside, in whatever the weather has done. You drink a lot of water and it is still not enough.
  6. 9:45 — Rigging a heavy plate into position with chain blocks and a crane operator you cannot see, using hand signals and a radio.
  7. 12:00 — Lunch in a trailer with the whole crew. Everybody has opinions about the schedule.
  8. 12:30 — Back to fit-up and welding prep. Grinding, measuring, checking again, because the inspector will.
  9. 15:00 — The unit is on a shutdown schedule, so the afternoon is as busy as the morning. Nobody mentions that it is the ninth day in a row.
  10. 17:00 — Tools in the gang box, log the work done, check what the next shift needs. Back to the motel, shower, eat, sleep.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You like big, heavy, serious things and the planning it takes to move them safely.
  • You can work as part of a crew where everybody's safety depends on the person next to them.
  • You do not mind travel, and you can live with being away from home for weeks when a job needs it.
  • You like work that is inspected, tested and signed off, where there is a clear pass or fail.
  • You want to be paid while you learn, and you are fine with a trade where the hours are long when the work is on.
You may hate this if
  • Noise and heat bother you. Industrial plants are loud, and the work is often done in or next to hot equipment, in a vessel, or in full sun.
  • You dislike confined spaces. Going inside a tank or a vessel through a small opening is part of the work, not an exception.
  • You want to be home every night. Shutdown and site work can mean travel and weeks away, and it takes a toll on families.
  • You do not like heights or rigging. Lifts, scaffolds and moving heavy steel overhead are daily features of the job.
  • You want steady work in one place. Projects end and shutdowns are seasonal, so work can come in bursts rather than evenly.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Know which trade you are looking at

    Skilled Trades Ontario lists Construction Boilermaker as trade code 428A and as non-compulsory, so you can work in it without certification. It is a Red Seal trade, which means a certificate is recognised across Canada.

  2. Get an employer to register you

    As in every apprenticeship, the real gate is an employer, or a union training programme, willing to sign you on and sign off your hours. Ask boilermaker contractors and shops what they look for in a first-year apprentice. We did not verify which unions or training centres take applications.

  3. Work the hours

    Skilled Trades Ontario lists the apprenticeship as 6,600 hours, described as approximately four years: 5,880 hours on the job and 720 hours of in-school training.

  4. Certify, then collect tickets

    After the apprenticeship you write the certifying exam and receive a Certificate of Qualification. Because the trade is non-compulsory, the certificate does not need renewing. Welding and rigging qualifications that employers ask for are separate; ask each employer what they require.

  5. Use school routes to start early

    Ontario says OYAP lets students in Grade 11 or 12 earn co-op credits through a placement in a skilled trade. Ask your co-op teacher or the board's OYAP recruiter whether anything near you touches boilermaking, welding or industrial fabrication.

Where this comes from: Skilled Trades Ontario — Construction Boilermaker (428A) · Ontario — Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program

The money

Boilermaker salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$31.21
Low (hourly)
$48.21
Median (hourly)
$54.21
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 72103. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Boilermaker wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Large investments in the utilities industry, particularly in nuclear power
  • The need for ongoing repair and maintenance work, including in the province's large manufacturing base arealso expected to support job opportunities

Who hires for it

  • Manufacturers, particularly of boilers and tanks
  • Construction
  • Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution companies
less than 5%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Boilermakers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 72103). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take technology, shop, welding and maths courses. Geometry and measurement come up every hour, and shop class is the cheapest way to find out whether you like being in a loud room with metal.
  • Ask about OYAP and co-op, and ask the recruiter which employers near you take students in welding, fabrication or industrial trades.
  • Ask your guidance counsellor whether your board offers an SHSM in manufacturing or construction.
  • Look at the big tanks and boilers you can see from the road: water towers, storage tanks, a school's boiler-room vent. Ask yourself what it would take to build one.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Lay out a cone or a cylinder from flat paper

About 60 minutes
  1. Take a sheet of ordinary paper and a ruler. Decide what you want to make: a cylinder of a given height and width, or a funnel.
  2. Work out on paper what flat shape you must cut to make it, and how big. Cut it out, tape it into shape and see whether it closes with no gaps. If it does not, work out why, adjust and try again.
  3. Watch a video of a boilermaker or a plate fitter rolling and fitting a steel section. Notice how much of what you see is measuring and checking rather than welding.
  4. Phone or email one fabrication shop or boilermaker contractor and ask what a first-year apprentice does in the first month.

What it tells you. If getting the shape right felt like a puzzle you wanted to finish, the layout and fit-up that fill the trade may suit you. If it felt fiddly and pointless, take that seriously, because the real thing is the same puzzle in steel, with more noise, heat and weight, and with an inspector at the end.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What does a shutdown actually feel like in the third week?”
  2. “How much of your year is spent away from home, and how do you handle it?”
  3. “What is the split between welding, rigging and fitting in your work?”
  4. “What was the hardest part of your first year?”
  5. “What do people not understand about working inside a vessel or a tank?”
  6. “Which tickets mattered most for getting steady work?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Rarely early on. This is mostly heavy industrial work done by crews for large contractors and plant owners, with contracts and insurance to match. After years in the trade, some experienced boilermakers start fabrication or repair shops, but expect to carry equipment, insurance and a few large customers.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a boilermaker make in Ontario?

The median pay for a boilermaker in Ontario is $48.21 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $31.21 to $54.21 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a boilermaker in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a boilermaker in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Know which trade you are looking at; Get an employer to register you; Work the hours.

Where does a boilermaker work in Ontario?

Manufacturers, particularly of boilers and tanks. Construction. Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution companies. (Job Bank.)

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Skilled trades hub: kids, teens and adults The highest-paying skilled trades OYAP: start in high school SHSM: the Specialist High Skills Major Women in the skilled trades What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Read next

Apprenticeships in Ontario OYAP in Ontario Highest-paying trades All careers guides

Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.