2,500 Invited in Education Category Express Entry Draw | September 17, 2025

• Type of draw: Category-Based Express Entry Draw — Education
• Invitations issued: 2,500
• CRS score: 462
• Tie-breaking rule: July 09, 2025 at 04:24:19 UTC
• Find our prediction for the next draw.

Our Analysis of This Education Category-Based Express Entry Draw

Today’s draw is just the second-ever education draw in Canada. Here are the details of the two draws so far in Canada’s education category:

As you can see, today’s draw is larger (at 2,500 invitations) than the previous round and has a lower CRS cut-off than the May 1 draw.

In fact, at 462, today’s education category-based draw is the lowest CRS cut-off we’ve seen this year outside of the French language proficiency draws. Given that we’ve only had French, healthcare and education draws, this means that today’s education draw CRS cut-off is lower than anything we’ve seen in the healthcare occupations category.

What this tells us is that the healthcare category is quite competitive. We have seen a lot more invitations issued in the healthcare category and more invitations + higher CRS cut-offs means higher competition.

The takeaway? The education category may see fewer draws but is a valuable and viable option for those who are eligible, compared to Canadian Experience Class draws and healthcare draws.

How Does The Education Category Work in Canada’s Express Entry System?

The education category is designed to help Canada attract and retain workers with education and experience in specific education-related occupations, namely:

• Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants
• Instructors of persons with disabilities
• Early childhood educators and assistants
• Elementary school and kindergarten teachers
• Secondary school teachers.

Generally, category-based draws target workers with specific experience or language proficiencies across all programs, including Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker, and Federal Skilled Trades programs.

How Many Education Category Draws Will There Be in 2025?

We predicted in our last article covering the first education round on May 1 that there would be at least one more category-based draw targeting education workers. That turned out to be correct!

At this point, we think it’s more likely that we will see a trades draw and further French category-based draws in the next few rounds. In fact, we don’t expect to see another education round in 2025. This is largely based on an Access to Information and Personal Information (ATIP) request made by RCIC Mandeep Lidher earlier this year. That ATIP request revealed that IRCC expected to issue around 3,000 education invitations this year. We have now exceeded that target with today’s draw.

📑 Express Entry ITA Schedule 2025 (IRCC memo)

Planned ITAs by category:
•🎓 Education: ~3K ITAs (5% target)
•🏥 Healthcare: ~8K ITAs (15% target)
•🔧 Trades: ~3.3K ITAs (8% target)
•🗣️ French-proficiency: IRCC aiming to hit the 8.5% target for Francophone admissions outside… pic.twitter.com/KOlzgBU9Az

— Mandeep Lidher (@MannyLidher) August 27, 2025

However, IRCC did hold one healthcare-based draw each month for the past four months. Given the lack of clear category-based trends so far this year, perhaps we’ll see that trend in education too with more frequent education rounds. (Though, as we said, we don’t think this is likely at this time.)