Ontario's Mould Maker apprenticeship, trade code 431A: Grade 12 entry, three levels, 7,280 hours on the job plus 720 hours of in-school training, voluntary status, and the certifying exam. Distinct from Tool and Die Maker 430A, which carries the Red Seal.
Applies in: Ontario
In Ontario, a mould maker apprentice registers under the trade name Mould Maker, code 431A. Find a tool and mould shop, plastics or automotive parts manufacturer, or machining shop willing to sponsor you, register the apprenticeship with Skilled Trades Ontario, and work through three levels that combine 7,280 hours on the job with 720 hours of in-school training, 8,000 hours in total. At the end, the trade has a certifying exam, and passing it earns a Certificate of Qualification. There is no Red Seal endorsement for this code, and that distinction from the neighbouring Tool and Die Maker trade is stated plainly throughout this guide.
The name causes the first confusion, because mould making sits inside a family of machining trades that share shops, machines, and job titles. Job postings say mould maker, mold maker, tool and die maker, and machinist, sometimes for the same vacancy. The Ontario system registers them separately. This guide follows Mould Maker 431A. Tool and Die Maker 430A is a separate trade with its own chart row, its own 8,000 hours, and a Red Seal endorsement. General Machinist 429A is another separate trade, also 8,000 hours, also with a Red Seal. Three further mould-adjacent trades are inactive and accept no new registrations: Draftsperson, Plastic Mould Design 614B, which designs plastic moulds and tooling; Mould Designer 670E; and Mould or Die Finisher 277M. Do not register, or accept a job described as an apprenticeship, under an inactive code. Use the code on your Training Agreement whenever a form asks for the trade, and expect 431A, 430A, and 429A to be treated as different trades by employers, colleges, and the registration system. This guide is also not about mould remediation: removing mould from buildings is a different business, covered in the mould remediation business guide linked below, with different hazards, certifications, and customers.
The second point matters just as much. Mould Maker 431A is a non-compulsory trade in Ontario, it has a certifying exam, and it has no Red Seal endorsement. The chart lists all three facts in one row: certifying exam Yes, classification Non-Compulsory, Red Seal No. Nobody needs a licence or certificate to do mould making work in this province, and you can work in the trade without ever registering. The apprenticeship is not permission to work. It is structured training, a logbook of signed-off skills, a Certificate of Apprenticeship, and the path to the certifying exam and the Certificate of Qualification. The Red Seal wording that circulates for this occupation group belongs to tool and die makers: Job Bank's occupation page, written for tool and die makers as a group, says the Red Seal endorsement is available to qualified tool and die makers, and then states the mould maker lines separately. Do not carry the tool and die Red Seal into a 431A registration. If interprovincial Red Seal recognition matters to your plans, the route runs through a Red Seal trade such as Tool and Die Maker 430A, and you should confirm the current requirements with Skilled Trades Ontario before you register under either code.
What the trade covers, in Skilled Trades Ontario's own description, is reading and interpreting complex engineering drawings and work-process documentation; designing, building, and repairing moulds and models used to mass produce plastic or metal components or products; building precision mould components using conventional and numerically controlled metal-cutting machines and equipment including saws, drills, grinders, lathes, mills, and EDMs; and performing work-in-process measuring or checking using specialized and precision tools and equipment. A mould is the negative of the part: the work is cutting metal to tolerances a part's function depends on, then fitting, assembling, finishing, and polishing the moulding surface until the mould produces good parts repeatedly. The examining structure Skilled Trades Ontario published for this trade weights the work the same way the shop does: most of the examination sits on building and fabricating mould components, then fitting and assembling, then planning, with finishing and polishing a smaller share. Precision measurement runs through every stage, because a mould that is nearly right produces parts that are wrong.
The sponsor comes first. Skilled Trades Ontario is clear that an apprenticeship begins when you sign a Training Agreement with a sponsor and register it, and that finding a sponsor is the key first step. A sponsor can be an individual employer, such as a tool and mould shop, a plastics moulder or automotive parts manufacturer with an in-house mould shop, or a machining shop that builds moulds, fixtures, and gauges, or a group of employers, such as a union or consortium. Ontario's mould making work concentrates in manufacturing regions, particularly around automotive and plastics production, so a sponsor search that stays local to one town may need to widen to the nearest manufacturing corridor.
The application steps, from Skilled Trades Ontario's start-an-apprenticeship page, are:
The program totals 8,000 hours: 7,280 hours of on-the-job training and 720 hours of in-school training across three levels. About 80 per cent of an Ontario apprenticeship is paid work on the job and about 20 per cent is classroom learning, according to Skilled Trades Ontario. The general rhythm Skilled Trades Ontario describes is a year or more of work, then eight to twelve weeks of classroom training, repeated until the program is complete.
The rhythm is work, then a block of in-school training, then work again. The in-school training, as Georgian College's mould maker apprenticeship catalogue describes it, is a 720-hour program in three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Level 1 covers benchworking, drilling, turning, vertical milling, and surface grinding. Level 2 adds applied trade calculations, engineering drawings and CAD data, metallurgy of mould components, and milling and turning applied to mould components. Level 3 completes the advanced mould work, including designing and fabricating working compression and injection moulds to required specifications. Depending on the training delivery agency, in-school training may be block release, day release, part-time, or alternative delivery. Attend when invited through the training system, keep your logbook current, and make sure your recorded hours match what your sponsor reports. Before you sign, confirm the code on the agreement is 431A: a Tool and Die Maker or General Machinist agreement runs on a different standard, and hours logged under the wrong code do not convert on their own.
Mould Maker 431A has a certifying exam. Skilled Trades Ontario issues a Certificate of Apprenticeship when you complete the apprenticeship program, and a Certificate of Qualification when you pass the certifying exam. The start-an-apprenticeship page states the ladder plainly: the Certificate of Apprenticeship comes from completing the program, and the Certificate of Qualification comes from the certifying exam where the trade has one. For 431A, that exam is the provincial Certificate of Qualification examination, and the examination is built from the skill sets in the trade's Training Standard: devising and detailing a plan for the mould build, building and fabricating mould components, fitting and assembling the mould, and finishing and polishing the moulding surface. No pass mark is stated in this guide, because none was verified on a production Skilled Trades Ontario page. Confirm the current examination details, including the pass mark and the preparation resources, on Skilled Trades Ontario's examination pages before you book.
Experienced mould makers who never registered have a parallel door. The Trade Equivalency Assessment lets experienced tradespeople document equivalent qualifications or experience and seek the Certificate of Qualification without completing the apprenticeship. The Trade Qualifier application guide lists Mould Maker (431A) at 8,000 hours against the Training Standard. The application guide requires verifiable evidence of competency against the Training Standard and experience at least equal to the required training time for the code on the application, supported by work experience verifications from references who know the work first-hand. Check the current Trade Qualifier application guide before relying on that route, because the evidence bar is documentary.
Do not register under 431A expecting a Red Seal endorsement at the end. The Red Seal in this family sits with Tool and Die Maker 430A and General Machinist 429A, and the occupation-group wording on Job Bank does not change the Ontario chart for 431A. Do not mix up the machining codes. Mould Maker, Tool and Die Maker, and General Machinist are separate registrations with separate standards, and the 8,000 hours in this guide belong to 431A only, even where another trade also totals 8,000 hours. Do not accept an apprenticeship under an inactive code: Draftsperson, Plastic Mould Design, Mould Designer, and Mould or Die Finisher accept no new registrations. Do not let months of shop work go unrecorded. In a trade where the credential rests on demonstrated skills against a Training Standard, unrecorded work is work you may have to demonstrate again, so keep the logbook signed and the hours submitted. And do not pay for a course that promises the certificate on its own. The certificate comes through Skilled Trades Ontario on completion of the program and the certifying exam, not through a private training provider alone.
This guide follows Mould Maker, trade code 431A. That is the Ontario trade name in the Skilled Trades Ontario apprenticeship programs chart. Job postings often use the American spelling, mold maker, and sometimes describe the same hiring need as tool and die or tooling work; the Ontario registration code is what settles which trade you are in. Do not confuse 431A with Tool and Die Maker 430A, which is a separate Ontario trade with its own chart row, its own 8,000 hours, and a Red Seal endorsement. Do not confuse it with the mould-adjacent design and finishing trades either: Draftsperson, Plastic Mould Design 614B, Mould Designer 670E, and Mould or Die Finisher 277M are all listed as inactive with no new registrations on the chart. When a form asks for the trade, put down the code on your Training Agreement. The hours in this guide belong to 431A only.
For Mould Maker 431A, the program is 8,000 hours: 7,280 hours of on-the-job work experience and 720 hours of in-school training, delivered across three levels. Skilled Trades Ontario describes apprenticeships generally as taking two to five years depending on the trade, with a cycle of a year or more of work followed by eight to twelve weeks of classroom training. Job Bank describes the mould maker route nationally, inside the tool and die makers occupation group, as usually requiring completion of a four-year apprenticeship or college program in mould making. The hours are the fixed part; the calendar time follows how steadily the work comes and when in-school seats are offered.
Mould Maker 431A is non-compulsory in Ontario, and the Skilled Trades Ontario chart lists a certifying exam but no Red Seal endorsement for this code. You do not need to be a registered apprentice or a certificate holder to do mould making work in Ontario, though registration is still how you get the structured training, the Certificate of Apprenticeship, and the certifying exam. The Red Seal belongs to the neighbouring trade: Tool and Die Maker 430A carries the Red Seal endorsement on the chart, and Job Bank's Red Seal wording for the occupation group is written about tool and die makers. Do not carry the tool and die Red Seal into a 431A registration. For Ontario, the chart governs: 431A has a certifying exam and a Certificate of Qualification, and no Red Seal endorsement.
Grade 12 is the academic entry grade listed in the Skilled Trades Ontario apprenticeship programs chart for Mould Maker 431A. Skilled Trades Ontario also requires apprentices to be at least 16 years old, to have legal permission to work in Canada, and to have a sponsor in Ontario. Job Bank describes completion of secondary school as usually required for the occupation group nationally. Treat Grade 12 as the floor, not the competitive standard: comfort with applied trade calculations, engineering drawings and CAD data, metallurgy, and precision measurement will matter to a sponsor deciding whether to take you on. The in-school training runs on benchwork, turning, milling, grinding, and mould component work, so math, technical drawing, and careful measuring are worth arriving with.
First find a sponsor, an employer or group sponsor responsible for your training: a tool and mould shop, a plastics or automotive parts manufacturer with an in-house mould shop, or a machining shop that builds moulds, fixtures, and gauges. Then apply: if you are 18 or older, apply online through the Skilled Trades Ontario Portal; if you are 16 or 17, or unable to apply online, complete the paper Application for Apprenticeship Training, signed by you, a parent or guardian if you are under 18, and your sponsor, and submit it to Skilled Trades Ontario by email or mail. Once approved, you and your sponsor sign a Training Agreement, which registers you as an apprentice, and you receive a Registered Apprentice Wallet Card. Download the Apprenticeship Training Standard Logbook, which lists the skills and tasks to master, and have your sponsor or trainer sign off each skill once you demonstrate it.
Yes, through the Trade Equivalency Assessment, for trades that have a Certificate of Qualification. Mould Maker 431A has a certifying exam, so the route is open in principle. The Trade Qualifier application guide lists Mould Maker (431A) at 8,000 hours against the Training Standard, which is the experience benchmark a trade qualifier application is assessed against. The bar is documented proof: competency against the Training Standard and experience at least equal to the required training time, supported by work experience verifications from references who saw the work. Check the current Trade Qualifier application guide before relying on that route, because the evidence bar is documentary and the guide states who can apply and what must accompany the application.
Where a figure could not be verified on a Skilled Trades Ontario or Job Bank page — any examination fee, any wage figure, any examination pass mark, and the calendar length of the in-school training blocks — this guide says so and points to the Skilled Trades Ontario pages linked above instead of carrying a secondary source's figure. No Red Seal claim is made for Mould Maker 431A in this guide, because the Skilled Trades Ontario chart lists no Red Seal endorsement for this code. Check the Skilled Trades Ontario pages before you pay anything or plan around a date.