The DEP (Diplôme d’études professionnelles) is Quebec’s vocational diploma and the standard route into the electrician trade. It’s issued by the Ministère de l’Éducation, not by a college or CEGEP — taught in centres de formation professionnelle run by the local school service centres, plus a small number of private career colleges.

What you’ll cover: electrical theory, circuits, wiring methods, motor controls, lighting, industrial installations, the Code de construction du Québec (Chapter V — Électricité), blueprint reading, safety, and hands-on lab work.

Length: 1,800 hours, typically about 17 months full-time.

Admission: generally Secondary IV in language of instruction, second language, and mathematics. Quebec provides several alternative admission routes for adults, including the general development test (TDG), the equivalency test (TENS), and recognized equivalent training.

Cost: Public DEP training is heavily subsidized and tuition is generally low for eligible Quebec students. Budget separately for personal tools, work boots, textbooks, and other equipment required by your training centre. Financial assistance may be available through the AFE.

Language: offered in French (5295 – Électricité) and English (5795 – Electricity). Both programs are identical in duration and competencies. Filter schools by language in our directory.

If you’re in Greater Montreal, see our Montreal electrician schools page for schools in the Montréal, Laval, and Longueuil area.

Your DEP qualifies you for both tracks, but the licensing bodies, apprenticeship lengths, and exams are different.

Construction electrician — the CCQ route

Job sites: new builds, renovations, commercial installations. Regulated by the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ). To work on any Quebec construction site you must hold a valid CCQ apprentice or compagnon competency card. Wages, hours, benefits, and safety are governed by the industry’s collective agreements.

Non-construction — the provincial qualification route

Inside a single plant, factory, hospital, school, or institution. Governed by the Quebec government’s Certificate in Electricity system. The government describes this certification as mandatory for people who install, maintain, repair, redo, or modify electrical installations covered by the regulation.

Most people start with the construction path because a CCQ compagnon can later obtain the provincial certificate without additional requirements — earning both from one pathway.

For the standard DEP-to-apprenticeship route, you’ll generally need a job guarantee from a CCQ-registered employer before you can obtain your certificat de compétence apprenti (CCA). For electricians, the current CCQ requirement is at least 150 hours of guaranteed employment spread over a maximum of three consecutive months. Other routes and exceptions may apply depending on your circumstances and the current labour-pool rules.

Once you have your CCA, the electrician apprenticeship is structured as four periods of 2,000 hours:

You accumulate hours automatically as you work; your employer reports them to the CCQ. A small amount of mandatory training (health and safety, code updates) is delivered through CCQ-approved providers during the apprenticeship.

You’re eligible to write the CCQ qualification exam after completing the apprenticeship — or after reaching at least 85% of the apprenticeship, if you choose to sit it early. Pass the exam, complete any remaining hours, and the CCQ issues your certificat de compétence compagnon (CCC). You’re a journeyman.

If you’re working outside of construction, the apprenticeship is administered under the Quebec government’s electrical qualification system, not the CCQ. The current requirement is a minimum of 5,000 hours of apprenticeship under the supervision of a certified electrician, plus prescribed competencies and mandatory training, before writing the provincial qualification exam. Pass the exam and you receive the Certificate in Electricity.

Red Seal endorsement. Quebec is part of the interprovincial Red Seal program for construction electricians. A qualified CCQ compagnon can obtain the Red Seal endorsement by passing the interprovincial Red Seal examination — worth doing if you might work in another province.

Contractor / master electrician. To run your own electrical business in Quebec, you need a contractor’s licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) and membership in the Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec (CMEQ).

The DEP is the educational foundation for becoming an electrician, but graduating from the DEP does not by itself make you a journeyman. It qualifies you to enter an apprenticeship — either the CCQ apprenticeship for construction, or the provincial apprenticeship for non-construction. Full qualification comes after completing the apprenticeship and passing the qualification exam.

• DEP Électricité: ~17 months full-time.
• Construction apprenticeship (CCQ): 8,000 hours. At a hypothetical 2,000 hours per calendar year, about four years — actual pace depends on how consistently you’re placed on sites.
• Non-construction apprenticeship (provincial): minimum 5,000 hours — at least about two and a half years at 2,000 h/year.

For someone progressing continuously, expect roughly five to six years from starting the DEP to becoming a construction compagnon.