Canada’s changes to National Occupational Classification (NOC) structure adds 16 new occupations that will become eligible under the Express Entry, allowing to easily introduce new occupations in NOC classification in the changing work dynamics more frequently in the future.
Table of contents:
- Highlights
- NOC in a nutshell
- NOC for Immigration purposes
- NOC 2021 Version 1.0
- NOC 2021 compared to NOC 2016
- Impact on immigration programs
Highlights
- The new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) classification is going live on November 16, 2022.
- TEER’s six categories will replace the current NOC system’s five skill categories.
National Occupational Classification (NOC) in a nutshell
NOC, introduced in 1992, is Canada’s national reference for occupations. The NOC is a structure that categorizes the entire range of jobs/occupational activities in Canada. It is used for collecting and analyzing occupational data for labor market analysis, labor supply-demand analysis, employment-related program administration, and many more. One of the use cases is job/occupation classification for Immigration purposes.
There are 500 four-digit NOC codes available as of NOC 2016 version 1.3, each representing an occupation categorized by four skill levels: A, B, C, and D, and skill type 0 (zero) for management occupations.
| Skill level/type | Nature of education/training |
|---|---|
| 0 (zero) | Management occupations. |
| A | Occupations that require university degree at the bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate level. |
| B | Occupation that require: Two to three years of post-secondary education at a community college, institute of technology, or CEGEP or Two to five years of apprenticeship training or Three to four years of secondary school and more than two years of on-the-job training, specialized training courses, or specific work experience. Occupations with supervisory responsibilities and occupations with significant health and safety responsibilities, such as firefighters, police officers, and registered nursing assistants are all assigned skill level B. |
| C | Occupation with Some secondary school education, with up to two years of on-the-job training, training courses, or specific work experience |
| D | Short work demonstration or on-the-job training without any educational requirements. |
NOC for Immigration purposes
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) uses the NOC classification to decide if the immigration applicant’s job or work experience meets the eligibility requirements to apply for immigration to Canada under the immigration programs maintained by Canada’s federal and provincial governments. For instance, immigration programs under the Express Entry System require candidates to have work experience in certain skill groups to be considered to apply for permanent residence if they receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) in an Express Entry draw. You can visit our in-depth overview here to know more about Express Entry.
NOC 2021 Version 1.0
In a major overhaul to the NOC 2016 revision, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Statistics Canada have replaced the skill levels with the new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) categories. The new revision will allow NOC to precisely assess the level of training, formal education, and work experience required to gain entry into each occupation and its responsibilities.
There are six TEER categories in the new revision, up from four skill levels in the NOC 2016 revision. The skill level B in the NOC 2016 revision represents almost 1/3 of all occupations listed in the NOC structure, making its employment requirement relatively broad. The more precisely distinct structure under TEER categories results in a more consistent and uniform classification.
| TEER 0 | Management occupations. |
| TEER 1 | Completion of a university degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate); or Several years of experience in a specific occupation from TEER category 2 (when applicable). |
| TEER 2 | Completion of a post-secondary education program of two to three years at community college, institute of technology or CÉGEP; or Completion of an apprenticeship training program of two to five years; or Occupations with supervisory or significant safety (police officers and firefighters) responsibilities; or Several years of experience in a specific occupation from TEER category 3 (when applicable). |
| TEER 3 | Completion of a post-secondary education program of less than two years at community college, institute of technology or CÉGEP; or Apprenticeship training of less than 2 years; or More than six months of on-the-job training, training courses or specific work experience with some secondary school education; or Several years of experience in a specific occupation from TEER category 4 (when applicable). |
| TEER 4 | Completion of secondary school; or Several weeks of on-the-job training with some secondary school education; or Several years of experience in a specific occupation from TEER category 5 (when applicable). |
| TEER 5 | Short work demonstration and no formal educational requirements. |
NOC 2021 compared to NOC 2016
The new 2021 revision contains 516 occupations, up from 500 in the NOC 2016 revision. Of those 516 occupations, 413 are exactly the same as they were in the 2016 revision.
16 new occupations that will become eligible under Express Entry:
- Payroll administrators;
- Dental assistants and dental laboratory assistants;
- Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates;
- Pharmacy technical assistants and pharmacy assistants;
- Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants;
- Sheriffs and bailiffs;
- Correctional service officers;
- By-law enforcement and other regulatory officers;
- Estheticians, electrologists and related occupations;
- Residential and commercial installers and servicers;
- Pest controllers and fumigators;
- Other repairers and servicers;
- Transport truck drivers;
- Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators;
- Heavy equipment operators; and
- Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors.
As mentioned before, the new NOC codes under TEER categories are made of 5 digits as compared to four digits in the previous NOC revision.
The one-to-one comparison between the two revisions can be easily translated as listed in the table below.
| NOC 2016 | NOC 2021 |
|---|---|
| Skill type 0 | TEER 0 |
| Skill level A | TEER 1 |
| Skill level B | TEER 2 and TEER 3 |
| Skill level C | TEER 4 |
| Skill level D | TEER 5 |
Impact on immigration programs
These are the program that will be impacted due to changes in NOC revision:
- Express Entry
- Federal Skilled Worker Program
- Canadian Experience Class
- Federal Skilled Trades Program
- Atlantic Immigration Program
- Provincial Nominee Program
- caregivers programs
- Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
- Agri-Food Pilot
- out-of-status construction workers
- International Mobility Program
- Temporary Foreign Worker Program
The changes in NOC will be applied to immigration applicants only when they receive an ITA after November 16, 2022. Anyone who received an ITA before that date must use NOC 2016 revision occupations codes.
Example:
Let us assume your existing/past work duties are aligned with the duties of “Information systems testing technicians” occupation found in the NOC structure. If you received an ITA before November 16, 2022, you would use NOC 2016 revision code 2283 in your permanent residence application. However, if you receive an ITA after that date, you would instead use the NOC 2021 revision code 22222 for the same occupation.
IRCC already confirmed that this change would not impact your CRS score, as the work experience points are awarded based on the number of years of work experience. For example, if you would have received 50 points for employment in Skill Type/Level 0, A or B, you will still get 50 points for employment in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3.
We’ve provided the updated Express Entry eligibility criteria with both the NOC revisions: 2016 and 2021 on our website here.
You can visit Statistics Canada’s official website to find out NOC code for your occupation in both the 2016 and 2021 revisions here.
