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Learn about Canada National Occupational Classification (NOC) Codes

A skilled worker who wants to migrate to Canada must be eligible under the stream or pathway through which they plan on migrating. A candidate’s eligibility is calculated based on six key factors: age, educational qualifications, work experience, adaptability, language proficiency, and arranged employment. Indeed, each factor carries its significance and plays an important role at the time CRS points are calculated. But one of the important points to keep in mind is the employment or job factor.

An applicant aiming to apply under any one of the permanent resident streams available to them needs to first check whether or not their occupation is in-demand in Canada or not. They must also be aware of the category under which their job profile is classified because that is something that is asked to be filled out correctly in the permanent residence application form.

Knowing the job category is also essential mainly because if this field is filled out wrong in the form that can result in a direct rejection of one’s PR application. So, let’s talk about these job categories, how they are defined and how to find the correct category for your occupation.  

What is National Occupational Classification?

The National Occupational Classification (NOC) Canada is a reference system used by the country to categorize jobs of similar nature, title, responsibilities, and duties under a common category. Each and every job profile has a separate NOC Code to identify it. In this system, jobs are divided based on the occupational activity carried out in every role. This system is essential for examining labor market and career intelligence, occupational skills development, job forecasting, skilled and semi-skilled workers' supply and demand analysis.

What are the recent changes in the NOC System?

Every 5 years the NOC is updated to make sure that the prevailing system justifies Canada’s changing labor market trends. Now the current approach of categorizing occupations is being shifted and the jobs will be categorized based on a new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) system. To date, the Employment & Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) used NOC 2016 to evaluate LMIA applications. Other than that, the National Occupational Classification was used by IRCC and ESDC to set policies regarding skilled worker immigration programs and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). However, the new system of TEER or NOC 2021 is supposed to be implemented in fall 2022. This revised classification system has 516 occupations, up from 500 in NOC 2016. In this system, the new occupation will be created to reflect emerging fields in data science, cyber security, and others.

Reflect upon NOC 2021

The new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) system incorporates six categories. The detail of categories 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are given below.

  • 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 fewer than two years at community college, institute of technology, or CÉGEP; or Apprenticeship training of fewer 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

Simply knowing and filling out these codes correctly in your permanent residency application is not enough. In order to get an approval for your Visa you also need to fulfill the remaining requirements. For this, you can get assistance by Visa Walk and get a free Visa consultation session to know your prospective of immigration to Canada.