Apprenticeship Financial Supports Checker

Canada Apprentice Loan. An initiative of the Government of Canada to help you complete your apprenticeship in a designated Red Seal trade. You can get up to $4,000 in interest-free loans per period of technical training, to help pay for tuition, tools, equipment and living expenses, to cover forgone wages or to help support your family. You will not have to make payments, and no interest will accumulate, until after you complete or leave your apprenticeship training program. The loan is available in all provinces and territories except Quebec, where an alternate support is available. You can apply as early as 3 months before the start of your technical training and can receive funding as early as day one of your training while you wait for your Employment Insurance claim to be processed for payment. The period limit beyond the per-period amount is stated on the official page: check the official page before you count on a total.

Employment Insurance during technical training. If your province or territory has referred you to full-time technical training (sometimes called block-release training) as part of your apprenticeship, you may be able to receive Employment Insurance regular benefits while attending your course. Your province, territory, or training institution issues you a 16-digit reference code as proof of referral once you are approved to attend full-time technical training, and you provide that code when you apply. You must obtain a referral for each block of full-time technical training, and a new reference code is provided for each training block. You can apply online up to seven days before your last day of work. You only need to serve the 1-week waiting period once for the same apprenticeship program. If you are on leave from work to attend full-time technical training, your Employment Insurance benefits will end on the last day of your course. The hours and benefit-rate rules are not stated on this page: check the official Employment Insurance page for the current eligibility rules.

The closed grants. The Apprenticeship Incentive Grant and the Apprenticeship Completion Grant both closed on March 31, 2025, and applications and supporting documents are no longer accepted. The Incentive Grant was a taxable cash grant of $1,000 per year or level, for a lifetime maximum amount of $2,000 per person, for registered apprentices in a designated Red Seal trade who completed the first or second year or level. The Completion Grant was a one-time taxable cash grant lifetime amount of $2,000 per person for registered apprentices who completed their apprenticeship training and obtained journeyperson certification in a designated Red Seal trade. Neither grant can be applied for now. The Government of Canada states that eligible apprentices can access Employment Insurance benefits while attending technical training and up to $20,000 in interest-free Canada Apprentice Loans.

Provincial and territorial supports. Financial assistance from your province or territory may be available to help cover costs for accommodations, childcare, and transportation. Those supports are not listed with amounts on this page because they differ by province and change: check your provincial or territorial apprenticeship authority financial support page. In Ontario, start with the Ontario apprenticeship page, which points to provincial and federal financial supports for apprentices. Measures announced but not yet open for applications are not listed here at all: check the official pages before counting on them.

Sources: Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Apprentice Loan (Canada.ca), Apprenticeship Grants (Canada.ca), and Employment Insurance for apprentices (Canada.ca), each opened at build time. No figure on this page comes from anywhere else. Where a figure could not be verified on an opened official page, this page says to check the official page instead of stating it.