72501 Water well drillers

What this occupation covers

Water well drillers operate a variety of mobile water well drilling rigs and equipment to drill and monitor residential, commercial and industrial water wells. They are employed by water well drilling contractors and governments, or they may be self-employed. Apprentices are also included in this unit group.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 8 main duties for this code.

• Review client requirements and proposed locations for water wells
• Operate water well drilling rigs and other equipment to drill, bore and dig for residential, commercial and industrial water wells or environmental assessment, and install well screens, casings and other well fixtures
• Document geological formations encountered
• Clean and disinfect wells in preparation for use
• Perform routine mechanical maintenance work on water well drilling rigs and equipment
• Install, test, maintain and repair water well pumps, piping systems and equipment and perform pumping tests to assess well performance
• May provide other drilling services, such as repair or dismantling of existing water well structure, elevator shaft drilling and hydro pole drilling.
• Water well drillers may specialize in a specific method of drilling, such as cable, rotary, auger, hammer or reverse circulation drilling.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 8 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 72021 Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews
• 83100 Underground production and development miners
• 73402 Drillers and blasters - surface mining, quarrying and construction
• 83101 Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related workers

Excluded from this code

• Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews (See 72021 Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews)
• Driller - underground mining (See 83100 Underground production and development miners)
• Drillers and blasters - surface mining, quarrying and construction (See 73402 Drillers and blasters - surface mining, quarrying and construction)
• Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related workers (See 83101 Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related workers)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

apprentice water well driller · cable tool driller - water well drilling · churn drill operator - water well drilling · journeyman/woman water well driller · water well driller · water well driller apprentice · water well driller journeyman/woman · water well drilling technician

Employment requirements

• Completion of secondary school is usually required.
• Completion of a two- to three-year water well drilling apprenticeship program or Two to three years of work experience in the trade combined with college or industry courses in water well drilling is usually required to be eligible for trade certification.
• Trade certification is available, but voluntary, in New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.