Sourced, not vibes
The trade list is scraped from red-seal.ca. Ontario’s compulsory trades are parsed out of the actual regulation. Every link is checked in CI.
Code to Trades
An open guide for programmers moving into the skilled trades in Canada. Every trade, every certifying body, every information channel — sourced from statutes and regulators, not career blogs.
Why this exists
Section titled “Why this exists”If you type “software developer to electrician Canada” into a search engine, you get affiliate pages for private colleges, US content that does not apply here, and listicles that reprint the same eight salary figures. What you do not get is the thing you actually need: which trades exist, who certifies them in your province, what it legally takes to start, and where the money and the openings really are.
That information is public. It is just scattered across thirteen provincial authorities, a federal standards body, a handful of statutes, and a set of union intake pages that no search engine surfaces.
This repo pulls it into one place, keeps it in machine-readable data, and cites the primary source for every claim.
Honest about the downside
Income dips for years. Bodies wear out. Apprenticeship completion rates are not great. This guide says so.
Built for your brain
A whole chapter on where programming still pays inside the trades — controls, instrumentation, SCADA, automation.
Reusable data
data/*.json is the actual source. Use it, fork it, build something better.
Start with the honest part
Section titled “Start with the honest part”Reality checkWhat actually changes when you leave a desk job for a trade — money, body, schedule, status — and the five questions to answer before you quit.
How Canadian apprenticeship actually worksSponsors, registered training agreements, block release, compulsory trades, and why the hardest step is the first one.
Where your code still paysBuilding automation, instrumentation, power engineering, SCADA, NDT. The trades where fifteen years of debugging is an asset, not a résumé gap.
Reference
Section titled “Reference”The 54 Red Seal tradesWith NOC codes, designation years and provincial coverage.
Beyond Red SealLicensed careers most guides never mention.
The 13 authoritiesWho registers apprentices in each province.
Information channelsThe full directory of where to look.
Not career advice, not legal advice. Regulations change; the source links are there so you can check for yourself. Corrections welcome — open an issue.