Cert in Carpentry/Building Construction Citation at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, Canada is a certificate in Upgrading/upskilling programme. The programme runs for 24 weeks, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition is CAD 4,000 per total for local students.
This 24-week foundation program introduces the carpentry and building construction trade to students with no prior apprenticeship registration, combining classroom instruction with shop-based practical work across seven courses worth roughly twenty credits. Coursework covers safety protocols, building codes, tool proficiency, framing systems, concrete formwork, site layout, and stair construction, preparing students to erect, install, maintain, and repair wooden structures both indoors and outdoors. On completion, students write the Carpentry Level 1 exam and become eligible for SkilledTradesBC credit toward Carpentry Level 1 apprenticeship along with work-based hours credited toward that designation, giving a pathway into KPU's Carpentry Apprenticeship levels two through four. The program runs from KPU's Cloverdale campus, with information sessions offered ahead of each intake and a number of seats per intake reserved for self-declared Indigenous students. It suits people who enjoy analyzing, building, and assembling structures from drawings and sketches and who can manage the trade's physical demands, including standing, bending, lifting, and hand-eye-coordinated tasks, as an entry route into carpentry before securing an apprenticeship employer sponsor.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: In addition to KPU's general university admission requirements, including the vocational-level English Proficiency Requirement, this citation sets its own English and Mathematics prerequisites. English: English Studies 12, Literary Studies 12, English First Peoples 12, Composition 12 or Creative Writing 12, each at a minimum grade of C, or equivalent; or KPU's Vocational Trades English Reading Assessment at a minimum score of 80%. Mathematics: any Math 11 course at a minimum grade of C, or equivalent; or KPU's Vocational Trades Mathematics Assessment at a minimum score of 31%. Completion of high school shop courses is noted as an asset but is not required. Four seats per intake are reserved for self-declared Indigenous applicants, with unused seats reverting to the general applicant pool. Group information sessions at the Cloverdale campus are recommended before applying.
Application Details
Start Date:Trades Foundation programmes run on their own fixed start dates rather than on KPU's Fall, Spring and Summer academic terms — the Senate calendar notes that some vocational and trades programmes begin and end outside the published term dates, and the Faculty of Trades and Technology runs roughly 92 intakes across the year. Admissible applicants are placed on a waitlist and offered the next available start date, so ask the faculty at kpu.ca/trades for the current intake schedule rather than assuming a September start.
Application Deadline:This is a Trades Foundation programme and it does not use KPU's term-based application windows. Applications are accepted all year round. Once your application checklist is complete you join the admission waitlist for the next available start date, ordered by the date your checklist was finished, and an offer follows when a seat opens; the offer letter names your confirmation deposit deadline. Declining a first offer sends your application to the back of the waitlist, and declining a second offer — or simply not replying — closes it, after which you must reapply. Domestic applicants (Canadian citizens and permanent residents) apply online at kpu.ca/apply, which redirects to EducationPlannerBC, and pay a non-refundable CAD 40 application fee; international applicants request a paper application from [email protected] and pay CAD 120. Every applicant must satisfy one of KPU's applicant categories plus the programme's own English and mathematics requirements, may be asked to sit KPU's Vocational Trades reading and mathematics assessment, and for some programmes must attend an interview or supply reference letters.
