The welding apprenticeship, explained

An apprenticeship is a job with training attached, not a course with a job at the end. You are employed, you are paid, and your formal training runs alongside the work. This page explains how the arrangement actually works, what each party is committing to, and the parts that catch people out.

How the arrangement works

There are three parties, and understanding who does what removes most of the confusion.

1. You and your employer sign a training contract. This is the legal core of an apprenticeship. It commits the employer to employ you, pay you and give you the range of work you need to learn the trade, and it commits you to do the work and the study. It is registered with the state or territory training authority.
2. A training provider delivers the formal training. Often a TAFE, sometimes a private training provider, sometimes delivered on the employer’s site. This is where the underpinning knowledge and the assessment happen.
3. The training authority oversees the contract. It registers it, and it is who you contact if the arrangement breaks down.

A fourth party is usually involved administratively: an apprenticeship support network that handles the paperwork, the sign up and the incentive claims. They work for the system rather than for either side, and they are free to use.

How long it takes

Nominally three to four years for an engineering fabrication trade. Two things change that in practice.

Competency based completion. Australian apprenticeships are increasingly completed when the apprentice is assessed as competent rather than when a fixed period expires. If you progress fast, are given broad enough work and your employer supports the sign off, you can finish early. If your workshop only does one narrow type of work, you may take longer, because you cannot be assessed on skills you were never given the chance to practise.

Credit for what you already have. A pre-apprenticeship qualification, a school based apprenticeship, or documented prior experience can reduce the training time through credit transfer or recognition of prior learning. Ask about this at sign up rather than a year in.

Getting paid while you learn

You are an employee, so you are paid, you accrue leave, and you are covered by workers compensation. Rates are set by the relevant modern award and rise each year of the apprenticeship. Adult apprentices are paid at higher rates than a first year school leaver.

Three things worth checking before you sign, because they vary by employer and they add up:

• Whether time at the training organisation is paid time. It normally is for the scheduled off the job training.
• Who pays course fees, materials and the tool allowance, and whether tools bought early are reimbursed.
• Whether overtime and site allowances are available to apprentices, because on site work can change the number substantially.

Government incentives and support payments exist for both apprentices and employers, and they change with the budget cycle. Check the current position rather than relying on what somebody was told three years ago.

Where to check the current detail

Apprentice pay rates and conditions are set by the relevant modern award and published by the Fair Work Ombudsman at fairwork.gov.au. Incentives, and the provider who supports your training contract, are at australianapprenticeships.gov.au. Qualifications and units are on the national register at training.gov.au. AWI does not repeat the figures here, because they change and a stale number is worse than a link.

Getting one, which is the hard part

The bottleneck is not the training. It is finding an employer willing to take on an apprentice. Employers are committing to four years of wages and supervision for somebody who cannot yet do the work, so they are choosing on attitude and reliability far more than on skill.

What actually works:

• Do a pre-apprenticeship first. It gives you basic hand skills, a safety induction and evidence that you turn up. That last one is what employers are really assessing.
• Approach fabricators directly. Small and medium fabrication shops often take apprentices without advertising. Walk in, in work clothes, with a one page resume, and ask.
• Consider a group training organisation. These employ apprentices themselves and place them with host employers, which spreads the risk for the host and gets a lot of people started.
• Look at the industries, not just the shops. Mining maintenance, rail, defence shipbuilding, water infrastructure, agricultural machinery and structural steel all need welders and all take apprentices.
• Start as a trade assistant. Being in the workshop, useful and known is the shortest route to being offered an apprenticeship, and employers convert existing workers regularly.

School based apprenticeships

You can start an apprenticeship while still at school, combining part time paid work and training with your school program. It counts towards both your school certificate and the trade qualification, and it means you finish school having already started the trade.

The trade off is that a school based arrangement is part time, so the calendar runs longer, and it needs a school, an employer and a training organisation all willing to coordinate. Where it works it is a very strong start. Ask the school’s careers coordinator rather than assuming.

What to do in the last year

The most common mistake is treating the trade qualification as the finish line. The people who do best treat the fourth year as the start of the next thing.

• Widen your process range while somebody else is paying for the consumables. Ask for time on processes your shop uses less.
• Get on pipe. Positional pipe welding is the skill that separates pay rates, and it is much easier to learn with a supervisor watching than on your own later.
• Plan your first certification. A trade qualification is one of the two routes into AS 1796 welder certification. Know which certificate category the work you want actually requires. Entry requirements.
• Keep a record of what you have welded. Process, material, thickness, position, standard. Certification and renewal both run on documented experience, and reconstructing four years from memory is miserable.

AWI membership is free for apprentices, and the reason to take it up in your first year rather than your last is the technical library and the certification discount rather than the badge. Student and apprentice membership.

Common questions

How long is a welding apprenticeship in Australia?

Nominally three to four years for an engineering fabrication trade. Completion is increasingly competency based, so an apprentice who progresses well and is given a broad enough range of work can finish earlier. Credit for a pre-apprenticeship qualification or for prior experience can also shorten it. A school based apprenticeship runs part time and therefore takes longer in calendar time.

Do apprentices get paid?

Yes. An apprentice is an employee, paid under the relevant modern award, with leave entitlements and workers compensation cover. Rates increase with each year of the apprenticeship, and adult apprentices are paid more than first year school leavers. Scheduled off the job training is normally paid time. Check who covers course fees and tools before you sign, because that varies between employers.

What qualification do you get from a welding apprenticeship?

A Certificate III level trade qualification in an engineering fabrication trade, awarded by the training provider that delivered and assessed the training. That is the trade qualification. It is not the same as a welder certificate, which is examined against a standard such as AS 1796 and covers a specific process and configuration.

Can I do an apprenticeship as an adult?

Yes, and it is common. Adult apprentices are paid at higher award rates, and existing workers can often have prior experience recognised so that less training time is required. If you already work somewhere with a workshop, the most direct route is to ask your employer about converting your role, rather than starting with a college enrolment.

Is welding a four year apprenticeship?

Traditionally yes, and in practice it depends. The nominal term is three to four years, but competency based completion means the finish date is set by assessed competence rather than by the calendar. The limiting factor is usually the range of work your employer can give you, because you cannot be assessed as competent in something you have never been asked to do.

What is the difference between a boilermaker and a welder?

In Australian usage a boilermaker is a fabrication tradesperson who fabricates and assembles metal structures and pressure equipment, which includes welding but also cutting, forming, fitting and reading drawings. A welder joins metal. The trade qualification covers the wider fabrication trade, which is why the same apprenticeship produces both descriptions, and why fabricators value the drawing reading and fit up skills as much as the arc time.