Air conditioning and refrigeration courses in Australia: Cert III, costs and where to study

The qualification: Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration

The current national qualification is UEE32225 Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. It replaced UEE32220 in March 2025 as an equivalent qualification, so if you see a TAFE or job ad still quoting UEE32220, it is the same trade and existing apprentices are moved across. Always check training.gov.au for the current code before you sign anything.

It is delivered as an apprenticeship, usually 4 years, combining paid work with an employer and off the job training at a TAFE or registered training organisation (RTO). Completion is competency based: if you can prove the skills, you can finish faster than the nominal time. You will work on everything from home split systems to supermarket refrigeration and big commercial chillers.

There is a pre-apprenticeship style option too: a Certificate II such as UEE20120 Certificate II in Split Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Systems, or an electrotechnology Cert II at school or TAFE. Neither is required, but they show employers you are serious and can shave time off the apprenticeship at some RTOs.

What you will actually learn

UEE32225 Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration is 35 units: 27 core plus 8 specialty units picked with your employer. Strip away the codes and it is a genuinely broad trade: part mechanical, part electrical, part plumber-style pipework, with fridges, splits, coolrooms and big chillers as your playground. Here is what you actually get your hands on.

• •Start with the safety basics: working safely around refrigerants under pressure, electricity, ladders and roofs, plus your white card so you can walk onto construction sites.
• •Get the refrigeration cycle into your bones: compressor, condenser, expansion device, evaporator. Once you can read pressures and temperatures against that cycle, every system from a bar fridge to a supermarket rack makes sense.
• •Braze copper pipework with an oxy set, bend and flare pipe, pressure test with nitrogen and pull a vacuum. Neat, leak-free pipework is the signature skill of this trade.
• •Safely handle refrigerants and lubricants, then recover, evacuate and charge systems to spec (units like UEERA0079 and UEERA0062). You will apply for your ARC trainee refrigerant handling licence early in first year so you can legally do this on the tools.
• •Learn real electrical work: reading wiring diagrams, wiring up contactors, relays, motors and thermostats, and fault finding dead circuits with a multimeter. The core electrical units set you up for a restricted electrical licence in most states when you finish.
• •Install and commission wall splits and ducted air conditioning: mounting units, running pipe and drains, wiring, pressure testing, charging and handing over a working system.
• •Work on commercial refrigeration: coolrooms, freezer rooms, display cabinets and multi-compressor supermarket racks, plus the big chillers and central plant that cool office towers and hospitals.
• •Get across controls: setting up and fault finding thermostats, pressure switches, defrost timers and modern digital controllers that run whole systems (UEERA0031 is the big one here).
• •Build serious fault finding skills: using gauges, thermometers and meters to diagnose why a system is not cooling, then fixing it. Diagnosis is what separates a mechanic from a parts swapper.
• •Finish with a capstone-style unit where you verify a refrigeration system is functioning and compliant, proving you can stand behind your own work as a tradesperson.

Year by year: how the training usually runs

Every employer and RTO carves this up a bit differently, and some TAFEs run block release (a week or more at a time) while others do day release. Completion is competency based, so if you tick off units faster you can finish before the nominal 4 years. Treat this as the typical shape, not a promise.

• •First year: TAFE covers safety, hand and power tools, basic electrical theory, the refrigeration cycle and your first brazing and pipework, plus safe refrigerant handling. You apply for your ARC trainee refrigerant handling licence early on so you can legally work on refrigerant under supervision. On the job you are the offsider: carting gear, running drains and duct, swaging pipe, and holding the torch steady while you learn what good work looks like.
• •Second year: at trade school it gets meatier: recovering and charging refrigerants, installing pipework, flow controls and accessories, wiring and testing motors and control circuits, and commissioning split systems. On site you start doing real installs with less hand holding: brazing joints that stay sealed, pressure testing, pulling vacuums, and wiring under your tradesperson's eye. First solo split install is a common second-year milestone.
• •Third year: TAFE moves into the harder diagnosis units: fault finding refrigeration systems, air conditioning plant and control systems, plus commercial gear like coolrooms and supermarket systems. At work you are trusted with service and breakdown calls, often solo on the simpler ones, and you are expected to diagnose before you ring for help. Your training plan and profile evidence should be well over half signed off.
• •Fourth year: trade school time drops right off (some TAFEs run only a couple of weeks) and focuses on specialty units your employer picked, things like VRF systems, central plant or flammable refrigerants, plus the final unit where you verify a system is compliant and working. On the job you run jobs near enough to a tradie: quoting your time, commissioning systems, handling refrigerant to the letter. Finish, and you can apply for your full refrigerant handling licence and, in most states, a restricted electrical licence.

The ARC refrigerant handling licence: you cannot touch refrigerant without it

Anyone who handles fluorocarbon refrigerant in Australia needs a refrigerant handling licence from the Australian Refrigeration Council (ARC), the ARCtick scheme. This is national law, on top of any state trade licence.

As an apprentice you apply for a trainee refrigerant handling licence, which costs $37 for 12 months as at September 2026 and gets renewed each year while you train. Once you finish the Cert III you qualify for the full refrigeration and air conditioning licence (RAC01), which costs $178 for 2 years or $267 for 3 years as at 1 January 2026. Fees go up a little each year, so check the fees page on arctick.org before you apply.

• •Trainee licence: apply once you start your apprenticeship, renew yearly
• •Full RAC01 licence: covers all stationary air conditioning and refrigeration work
• •Restricted licences exist for narrow jobs like split system installation only
• •Working on refrigerant without a licence risks serious fines for you and your boss

Restricted electrical licence: disconnect and reconnect

Air conditioning units are wired into the building, so fridgies constantly need to disconnect and reconnect electrical equipment. In most states you need a restricted electrical licence (REL) or equivalent to do that legally, on top of your trade qualification.

The key training unit is UEERL0004, disconnect and reconnect equipment connected to low voltage installation wiring, conditioned for air conditioning and refrigeration. In Queensland it is called a restricted electrical work licence through the Electrical Safety Office, in NSW it is a disconnect reconnect endorsement through NSW Fair Trading, and other states have their own versions through their electrical regulators. Most apprentices knock this over near the end of their time or straight after finishing. Ask your RTO, because some build the unit into the apprenticeship and some run it as a short add-on course.

How you actually enrol: the employer signs you up

You do not apply to TAFE for this course the way you would for uni. First you get an apprenticeship with a refrigeration and air conditioning business, a mechanical services contractor, or a group training organisation (GTO) that hires you out to host employers.

Your employer then contacts an Apprenticeship Connect provider (the free national apprenticeship support service, find one at apprenticeships.gov.au). The provider sets up a training contract, registers it with your state training authority, and you and the employer choose the RTO together. From there TAFE blocks or day release get scheduled around work.

Still at school? Most states offer school-based apprenticeships where you start the trade in years 10 to 12 and convert to full time when you finish school. Talk to your school's VET coordinator.

What the training costs, state by state

Course fees depend on where your apprenticeship is registered, not where you were born. Figures below are as at September 2026 and change every budget cycle, so always check the state's live page before relying on them.

• •NSW: fee free for apprentices whose training is funded under Smart and Skilled and commences before 30 June 2027. That saves you a student fee of up to about $2,000. Check the Skills NSW fee free apprenticeships page.
• •VIC: apprentice training is subsidised under Skills First if you are employed as an apprentice in Victoria. You pay a reduced tuition fee that varies by TAFE, so check the fee on the course page of the TAFE you will attend.
• •QLD: free for eligible apprentices under 25 in priority qualifications, which includes this one, extended to 30 June 2027. Otherwise eligible apprentices pay a set co-contribution of $1.60 per nominal hour at TAFE Queensland. Check the Free Apprenticeships for Under 25s page.
• •WA: this trade sits on the Lower Fees, Local Skills list. For 2026 annual fees are capped at $400 for apprentices under 25 and concession holders, and $1,200 for everyone else. Check jobsandskills.wa.gov.au.
• •SA: apprentice training is government subsidised, with the subsidy paid straight to your training provider. Gap fees vary by provider, so check the course on mytraining.skills.sa.gov.au and ask TAFE SA what you will actually pay.
• •TAS: apprentices are not eligible for the Fee-Free TAFE program, but apprenticeship training at TasTAFE is still subsidised. Ring TasTAFE for the current apprentice fee for this course, and check the live fee free page for what is and is not covered.
• •ACT: apprentice training at CIT is subsidised for skills-needs qualifications, and apprentices with a health care, pensioner concession or veterans gold card get 50 per cent off eligible fees. Check the CIT course page for the current qualification fee.
• •NT: apprentice fees at Charles Darwin University vary by course and eligibility, and some priority courses have free tuition under NT Government initiatives. Check the CDU fees page or call them before you start.

Who actually pays the fees

In practice a lot of employers pay the TAFE fees for their apprentices, either up front or by reimbursing you. It is worth asking about in the job interview.

It can also be a legal entitlement. Some awards covering refrigeration and air conditioning work require the employer to reimburse training fees and textbook costs for the apprenticeship unless the employer paid them up front. Check which award covers you and what it says about training costs on the Fair Work Ombudsman site (fairwork.gov.au), and use the Fair Work pay calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au to check your apprentice wage while you are there.

Where you can study

The big public providers deliver this trade in every state and territory: TAFE NSW, the Victorian TAFEs (including RMIT, Box Hill Institute and GOTAFE in the regions), TAFE Queensland and CQUniversity in Queensland, South Metropolitan TAFE in WA, TAFE SA, TasTAFE, CIT in Canberra and Charles Darwin University in the NT.

There are also well known industry RTOs that specialise in refrigeration and air conditioning, including Superior Training Centre in Sydney, Get Skilled Training in Brisbane and Adelaide, and Axial Training in Queensland. Group training organisations like MIGAS also employ fridgy apprentices directly.

To see every provider approved to deliver the qualification, search UEE32225 on training.gov.au and open the list of RTOs approved to deliver it, then filter by your state.

Split system short courses, and doing it without an apprenticeship

You will see short courses advertised for split system installation, usually the UEE20120 Certificate II in Split Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Systems. Be clear about what they are: they train you to install and decommission single head split systems under 18kW only, and they lead to a restricted refrigerant handling licence, not the full RAC01. No servicing, no repairs, no fault finding, no commercial refrigeration. Handy for a plumber or electrician adding split installs to their business, but it is not the fridgy trade and it will not make you a refrigeration mechanic.

As for doing the full Cert III outside an apprenticeship: most public TAFEs will not let you, because they only deliver it as an apprenticeship. Where private RTOs offer institutional or fee-for-service delivery, you pay the full cost yourself, it runs well into the thousands, and you still come out without the years of on the job experience employers and licensing bodies look for. For this trade the apprenticeship is the smart route: you get paid while you train, your fees are subsidised or free in most states, and the trade experience is built in. The main exception is recognition of prior learning for people who already have years of hands-on industry experience.

Costs beyond the course fees

Budget for more than tuition. You will need hand tools, gauges and eventually recovery gear (though employers usually supply the expensive kit), steel cap boots and PPE, plus textbooks and calculators for trade school. Then there are the licence costs: the ARC trainee licence each year, the full ARC licence when you qualify, and the restricted electrical licence fee in your state.

Help is available. Air conditioning and refrigeration sits on the Australian Apprenticeship Priority List, which can unlock extra Commonwealth support like apprentice training support payments and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans. Several states also run tool rebates or travel and accommodation subsidies for apprentices going to block training. Ask your Apprenticeship Connect provider what you qualify for, it is their job to know.