Bricklaying courses in Australia: Cert III, costs and where to study

The qualification: Certificate III in Bricklaying and Blocklaying (CPC33020)

The national qualification for bricklayers is CPC33020 Certificate III in Bricklaying and Blocklaying. As at September 2026 it is the current code on training.gov.au (it replaced the old CPC30111), so if a provider is advertising the old code, ask questions.

You will almost always do it as an apprenticeship over 3 to 4 years. You work full time for a brickie or a building company, and go to trade school in blocks or one day a week. The training is competency-based, which means you finish when you can prove you can do the work, not when a clock runs out. Plenty of apprentices with good site experience sign off early.

The course covers the lot: solid brickwork and blockwork, arches, curved walls, piers, blocklaying for structural masonry, reading plans, setting out, and the safety units you need on site.

What you will actually learn

CPC33020 is 28 units of competency: 20 core and 8 electives. Strip away the paperwork and it is a straight line from mixing your first batch of mortar to building arches and curved walls that make people stop and look. Here is what you actually do with your hands.

• •Start with the safety basics: your white card, site WHS rules, and working safely at heights, because you will spend plenty of time on scaffolds.
• •Handle and prepare the materials of the trade: mix mortar by hand and with a mixer, get the consistency right, and keep bricks and blocks stocked so the wall never stops.
• •Master the tools: trowels, levels, string lines, corner blocks, bolsters and brick saws, plus how to look after them so they last.
• •Read plans and specs, then set out a job on the ground so the first course goes down exactly where the builder needs it.
• •Lay bricks to a line and build walls and corners that are plumb, level and straight (unit CPCCBL3005 is the bread and butter of the whole trade).
• •Build masonry veneer and full cavity walls: wall ties, weep holes, flashings and damp proof course, the hidden details that keep water out of a house.
• •Lay blockwork and multi-thickness walls and piers, the heavier structural side you will use on commercial jobs, retaining walls and garages.
• •Erect and dismantle restricted height scaffolding so you can legally set up your own working platform.
• •Construct masonry arches and curved walls (CPCCBL3010 and CPCCBL3011), the old-school skills that separate a brickie from a labourer with a trowel.
• •Finish with decorative brickwork and structural masonry systems, plus electives like segmental paving, fireplaces and chimneys, or heritage tuck pointing depending on your TAFE.

Year by year: how the training usually runs

Every employer and RTO runs this a bit differently, and the nominal term itself varies: around four years in most states, three years in Victoria, with off the job training usually packed into the first three. Completion is competency based, so if you are quick and your boss signs you off, you can finish early. Treat this as the typical shape, not a promise.

• •First year: TAFE covers safety, tools, materials handling, mixing mortar and your first walls and corners, usually in a training workshop where mistakes get knocked down and relaid. On site you are the extra pair of hands: mixing mud, stocking the line, cutting bricks and cleaning up, then laying your first real courses under a tradie's eye. By the end of the year you should be trusted to run a straight section of veneer wall to the line.
• •Second year: TAFE moves into the real construction units: masonry veneer and cavity brick work, flashings and damp course, multi-thickness walls and piers, blockwork and scaffolding. On the job you are laying most days now, building corners yourself and keeping pace with the gang, and your supervisor starts signing off units in your training plan from work you have actually done. Speed and consistency become the goal, not just getting it plumb.
• •Third year: TAFE brings the showpiece skills: arches, curved walls, decorative brickwork, structural masonry systems and your electives like paving or fireplaces. On site you are close to a full producer: setting out from the plans, running your own elevations and handling the fiddly detail work, with first solo jobs like a garden wall or a small extension becoming normal. In three year states like Victoria this is also the finishing year, so training plan sign offs and final assessments wrap up here.
• •Fourth year (in states where the term runs four years): TAFE is usually done or down to a trickle, and the year is about working at full tradesman speed and quality while the last units and workplace evidence get signed off. You are trusted with whole jobs, quoting small ones with your boss and maybe keeping an eye on a first year. Once the RTO issues the certificate and your training contract is signed off, you are a qualified bricklayer, and competency based progression means plenty finish before the full term is up.

Pre-apprenticeships and try-a-trade: worth a look before you sign up

If you have no site experience, a pre-apprenticeship is the classic way in. The generic option is CPC20220 Certificate II in Construction Pathways, offered at most TAFEs and lots of high schools. It gives you basic tools, safety and measurement skills plus a taste of bricklaying, and employers like it because you turn up on day one useful.

Some states run bricklaying-specific pre-apps. Victoria has a Certificate II in Building and Construction Pre-apprenticeship with a bricklaying stream, currently on the Free TAFE list for eligible students. WA runs a Certificate II in Building and Construction (Pathway, Trades) Brick and Block Laying Pre-apprenticeship at North and South Metropolitan TAFE, fee free for WA residents under the current arrangements.

Before you commit to anything, check out the Australian Brick and Blocklaying Training Foundation (ABBTF), which now runs as Brick and Block Careers. It is the industry body set up to get more brickies trained. They run try-a-trade sessions and school programs around the country, help match you with employers taking on apprentices, and support you through the apprenticeship. They also pay employers a Brickstart subsidy for taking on new bricklaying apprentices, which is a handy thing to mention when you are door-knocking for a job.

How you actually enrol (it is not like uni)

You do not apply to TAFE and wait for an offer. For an apprenticeship, the order is: find an employer first, then the paperwork follows. Once a brickie or builder agrees to put you on, an Apprenticeship Connect provider (the free government-contracted service, previously called an Australian Apprenticeship Support Network provider) sits down with you both, signs the training contract, and registers it with your state training authority.

You and the employer then pick the registered training organisation (RTO), usually the local TAFE or an industry trade school. The RTO enrols you as part of the apprenticeship. If you are still at school, ask about a school-based apprenticeship: you start the Cert III part time in years 10 to 12 and convert to full time when you finish school.

• •Step 1: land an employer (use ABBTF, local brickies, group training organisations, or job boards)
• •Step 2: Apprenticeship Connect provider signs you both up, contract goes to the state authority
• •Step 3: you and the boss pick the RTO and training kicks off
• •No employer yet? Do a pre-app or try-a-trade while you keep looking

What the course costs, state by state

Good news: as at September 2026, an apprentice brickie pays little or nothing for training in most of the country. These schemes have end dates and eligibility rules though, so always check the state's live page before you bank on a number.

• •NSW: fee free. Apprenticeships funded under Smart and Skilled have no student fee for training that starts before 30 June 2027 (the fee used to be up to $2,000 for the whole apprenticeship). Check the Skills NSW fee-free apprenticeships page.
• •VIC: subsidised, not always free. Apprentice training is government subsidised and you pay a student fee set by the TAFE, and the bricklaying pre-apprenticeship is on the Free TAFE list. Fees vary by provider, so check the Victorian Skills Gateway and your TAFE's page.
• •QLD: free for most. Free Apprenticeships for Under 25s covers training costs for priority trades including bricklaying through to 30 June 2027. A separate Free Construction Apprenticeships scheme has covered over 25s at TAFE Queensland and CQUniversity; its funding window was due to wind up during 2026, so check the live Queensland government page. Outside those schemes the co-contribution at TAFE Queensland is around $1.60 per nominal training hour.
• •WA: fee free right now. Building and construction courses, including the Cert III in Bricklaying and Blocklaying and the brick and block pre-apprenticeship, are fee free for WA residents from 1 January 2025 to the end of 2026. After that, apprenticeships fall back to Lower Fees Local Skills capped fees. Check Jobs and Skills WA.
• •SA: fee free places available. SA has funded thousands of fee-free training places across 2024 to 2026, including construction courses, and apprentice training in bricklaying is available fee free through TAFE SA and trade schools like FCTA while places last. Check the Skills SA course page for CPC33020.
• •TAS: subsidised via the RTO. Skills Tasmania pays RTOs through the Apprentice and Trainee Training Fund to deliver apprentice training, so most Tasmanian apprentices pay little or nothing to TasTAFE, but Fee-Free TAFE itself excludes people already in an apprenticeship. Ask TasTAFE what you will pay and check Skills Tasmania.
• •ACT: subsidised for skills-shortage trades, and bricklaying qualifies. RTOs set their own fees and Skills Canberra requires at least a $350 charge. Check the ACT government apprenticeships page and CIT for the current figure.
• •NT: subsidised through Charles Darwin University. The NT government pays most of the course cost for apprentices and some priority courses are free under current fee-free TAFE arrangements. Check NT.GOV.AU and CDU for what you would pay.

Who actually pays: often not you anyway

Even where a student fee exists, you may not be the one paying it. Plenty of employers cover apprentice training fees as part of the deal, so ask before you sign.

Better still, check your award. Most apprentice brickies are on the Building and Construction General On-site Award, and it requires the employer to pay or reimburse training fees and the cost of prescribed textbooks for the apprenticeship, unless there is a good reason not to (like you failed to make progress). Do not take our word for it: look up the current award terms on the Fair Work Ombudsman website, and use the Fair Work pay calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au for your wages while you are there. We do not quote apprentice wage figures because they change and depend on your year, age and arrangement.

Where you can study it

Every state has at least one major public provider running the Cert III, plus a handful of industry trade schools. The big names:

• •NSW: TAFE NSW (multiple campuses, Granville is a well-known construction trades site)
• •VIC: Victorian TAFEs including Chisholm, Holmesglen, Melbourne Polytechnic and GOTAFE
• •QLD: TAFE Queensland (SkillsTech construction campuses) and CQUniversity in central Queensland
• •WA: North Metropolitan TAFE, South Metropolitan TAFE, and South Regional TAFE outside Perth
• •SA: TAFE SA, plus FCTA (a long-running Adelaide trade school for wet trades and bricklaying)
• •TAS: TasTAFE
• •ACT: Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), plus Master Builders Association training in the region
• •NT: Charles Darwin University (CDU), the territory's TAFE provider
• •To see every RTO approved to deliver the course, search CPC33020 on training.gov.au and open the list of providers, then filter by your state

Doing the Cert III without an apprenticeship: usually the wrong move

A few providers offer institutional or fast-tracked delivery of the Cert III at full fee, aimed at career changers and experienced labourers. Expect a serious price tag, often well into five figures, and check exactly how much real laying time you get.

For bricklaying, the apprenticeship is almost always the smarter route. You get paid while you learn, the subsidies above mean training is free or cheap, employers rate time on the trowel far above classroom hours, and speed and consistency only come from years of laying. Licensing bodies also lean on apprenticeship completion: the standard technical qualification for a QBCC bricklaying licence is the Cert III gained with real trade experience behind it.

The exception is if you already have years of solid site experience as a labourer or overseas-trained brickie. Then recognition of prior learning (RPL) through an RTO, or a gap-training arrangement, can get you the ticket without starting from scratch. Talk to an RTO that delivers CPC33020 about RPL before paying for a full-fee course.

White Card first, QBCC licence later (Queensland)

Before you set foot on any construction site in Australia you need a White Card (the general construction induction, unit CPCWHS1001). It is a short course through an approved RTO, usually costs somewhere in the low hundreds depending on the state and provider, and every state's work safety regulator lists who can issue it. Get it before you start hunting for an apprenticeship: it shows employers you are ready to go.

In Queensland there is an extra step down the track. Bricklaying and blocklaying is a licensed trade with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC). You do not need a licence as an apprentice or as an employee working for a licensed contractor, but the day you want to contract in your own right, quote jobs and invoice clients, you need a QBCC bricklaying and blocklaying licence. The technical qualification is the Cert III (or an equivalent recognised by QBCC) plus the required site experience, and contractor licence fees scale with your turnover. Check the QBCC site for current requirements and fees. Other states do not licence bricklayers the same way, though contracting rules and owner-builder thresholds vary, so check your state regulator before going out on your own.

Costs beyond the course, and the help that softens them

Even with free training, budget for the gear. A starting brickie's kit (trowels, levels, string lines, gauge rods, bolster, lump hammer, tape, brick carriers) plus boots and PPE will set you back several hundred dollars, and you will add to it over the apprenticeship. Some TAFEs also charge small materials fees even when tuition is free, and textbooks or e-resources can be extra (remember the award reimbursement rule above).

• •Ask your Apprenticeship Connect provider about current Australian Apprenticeships support: trade support loans or payments, and living away from home allowance if you relocate
• •Several states run tool or travel subsidies for apprentices, and TAFEs list materials fees on the course page, so ask before enrolment day
• •ABBTF (Brick and Block Careers) supports bricklaying apprentices and pays employers the Brickstart subsidy, which makes you cheaper to hire, so mention it in interviews
• •Keep receipts: some training and tool costs are claimable, and your employer may cover more than the legal minimum if you ask