How has NOC 2021 changed from NOC 2016

The NOC 2021 replaces the existing four-category "skill level" framework with a six-category system, which is the most significant change. The new system specifies the amount of TEER (Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities) needed to enter each occupation.

There are four skill levels in the current NOC.

• NOC A: Positions that typically require a university degree
• NOC B: Skilled trades jobs or those requiring a college diploma
• NOC C: Jobs requiring intermediate skills or job-specific training
• NOC D: Manual labour positions requiring on-the-job training 

This is how the new TEER system will seem.

• TEER 0: Management-related jobs
• TEER 1: Possession of a university degree or several years of relevant work experience in a TEER category 2 occupation
• TEER 2: Completion of a two- to three-year postsecondary education program at a community college, institute of technology, or CÉGEP; or Completion of a two- to a five-year apprenticeship training program; or Employment in a supervisory or significant safety-related occupation (such as police officers and firefighters); or Several years of experience in a particular TEER category 3-listed occupation (when applicable).
• TEER 3: Completion of a less than two-year post-secondary education program at a community college, institute of technology, or CÉGEP; or Less than two years of apprenticeship training; 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 particular occupation from TEER category 4 (when applicable).
• TEER 4: Completion of secondary education; a few weeks of on-the-job training combined with some secondary schooling; or a few years of experience in a particular occupation from TEER category 5. (When applicable).
• TEER 5: No formal educational prerequisites and a brief work demonstration

16 professions will reportedly be eligible for Express Entry, but three will no longer be.

Need Help? Talk to our immigration experts

The following professions will be included in the NOC 2022:

• 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
• Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors.

The following three professions were excluded from the list:

• Other performers
• Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport, and fitness
• Tailors, dressmakers, furriers, and milliners.

These will remain eligible for programs with broader occupational eligibility criteria, such as some streams of the Provincial Nominee Program.

3. Under NOC 2016, jobs were classified using a four-digit code; under NOC 2021, the coding method will change to a five-digit one. To illustrate the NOC classification hierarchy, let's take advertising, marketing, and public relations managers as an example. Its code in NOC 2016 was 0124; in NOC 2021, it will be 10022.

The two codes' distinctions for managers of advertising, marketing, and public relations are broken down as follows: