Fact Sheet

This document is also available in PDF (59 Kb)
September 2002

Student Customs Officers

The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has recruited young Canadians to work as student customs officers during the summer since 1960, and has had a year-round student program in place since 1987. This program provides regional management with the necessary flexibility to meet local operational requirements, and generates a pool from which to recruit talented customs inspectors for the future.

Student customs officers are college or university students who are hired after being security-cleared and after having successfully completed the same screening test given to customs inspectors.

Since students do not perform the full range of customs inspector duties, they are offered training according to the duties they will be expected to perform. A three-week training curriculum has been developed for student customs officers. Regional managers draw relevant modules from the curriculum to ensure that their students are fully trained for the duties they will be expected to perform.

The students' performance is closely monitored, and direction is readily available from their supervisor. Students work in a team environment with experienced customs officers available if they need help. The use of student customs officers allows experienced Customs Inspectors to focus their expertise on higher-risk tasks such as inspections to detect contraband and terrorism.

Rates of pay for student customs officers are based on their level of education.

For media information