New to jam making - do I need to can?

If your jam has at least 1:1 ratio (1 kg of sugar per kg of fruit) or more, you do not have to can it. Then it is so overwhelmingly sweet that bacteria cannot live in it.

If the jam has less sugar (1:2 are popular, 1:3 are found sometimes), then you have to either can it, or keep it in the fridge and consume it within a few days, similar to any other cooked food. Else, you are colonizing bacteria in your jam, and at some point, some of them will happen to be pathogenic and cause some unpleasant disease in whoever eats the jam.

Canning is a process in which the jam is closed against any new bacteria (that's why you have to close the jar hermetically) and then heated enough that most old bacteria are killed. After canning, you can keep the closed jars at room temperature without any new bacteria developing.

The reason why we "can" things is to prevent spoilage. It allows you to make a number of batches of something (like Jam) and then store it on the shelf, unrefrigerated for extended periods of time until you're ready to open the jar. That said, when you finally do open it, you're assured that the large majority of bacteria was killed at the start of the process, and no new bacteria has developed that will spoil your product

Yes, you can make jam, and then skip the "canning process", but your starting product will have a shorter shelf life (days?). I don't know what that shelf life is, so I'll let someone else with more experience chime in on that one.

So... that doesn't really answer your question. But I do have another suggestion. If you'd like to make Jam and you'd like to skip that "canning"/sanitization process, google for something called "freezer jam". Instead of using the canning process to kill any bad bacteria, you're using the freezer to store your product. My father-in-law does that and the jam works beautifully. At very least, it gets you started making jam while you decide if the "canning" process is worth the effort.

I am in the US, and make jam without using the pressure sterilization method, but rather the older style inversion method. You will still need jars with rings and lids (Example). I wash the jars in hot water, and then hold them in a warm oven, just a bit too hot to touch. I keep the lids and rings in boiling water while making the jam mixture. When it is ready, the very hot jam goes into the hot jars, the tops of the jars are wiped clean, the lids are screwed on tight, and the jars are inverted for at least several minutes. Then turn it back right side up, and wait for each jar to seal.

The heat kills the bacteria, and if there is enough sugar and acid, keeps it safe. DO NOT USE THIS FOR NON-JAM/JELLY CANNING! The jams are safe for months, as long as they sealed and stay sealed. After opening them, I usually refrigerate them.

If the jars are too hot, the jam will explode out of the jar, get jam on the seal, and it won't seal. But everything does need to be hot, so bacteria are killed. The newer pressure sterilization method is considered safer, and the only way to can non-jam items.

When I was young my mother used to make huge batches of Jams and Jellys. To seal them up for the winter she did not use a canning process. Instead she used bottles with simple twist in covers. The bottles were serrilized in boiling water. Then they were removed from the hot water with tongs and filled up with the steaming hot jam or jelly mixture. She set these out on the counter to cool for a short time covered with a cloth....but not really very long at all. When the jars were still rather hot she would pour in a layer of molten paraphin wax on top of the jelly mixture that was starting to set up. This sealed the jar from contamination. After the wax had hardened she would twist on the covers and store the many jars of jams and jellys on shelves in the cool basement. All winter long I carried sandwiches to school that were made from home baked bread and jelly from those jars.

When one went to use a fresh jar of jelly or jam the wax was simply broken into pieces and spooned out of the jar. I recall that it was rare to ever find a jar from the shelf in the basement that had gone bad and spoiled.

Do people still use the wax method today?

I live in Turkey and my nanny showed me how they can in the boiling water. It's real simple for jams and veggie sauces. You have the sterile jars and lids (re-used generally). Then you boil them in the water for 40 minutes to an hour.