How to get into a trade with no experience

The short version: you get hired first, then you train

A trade qualification in Australia is almost always done through an apprenticeship. That means you are a paid employee first. Your boss teaches you the practical side on the job, and a Registered Training Organisation (usually TAFE) teaches the theory, either one day a week, in blocks, or online.

Most apprenticeships run 3 to 4 years, with commercial cookery closer to 3. You do not need prior experience, and you do not pay for the trade course the way a uni student pays for a degree. You earn while you learn.

The one thing you must have before you can start is an employer willing to take you on as an apprentice. No employer, no apprenticeship. So the real task in front of you is getting hired, not passing an entry exam.

The four steps to actually get started

The Australian Government sets out a simple path on the Australian Apprenticeships site:

• •Do your research. Use Your Career to look at trades, what they pay, and future demand, so you pick something you can stick with for years.
• •Get prepared. Check what financial support you may be eligible for, and make sure your basic literacy and numeracy are up to the job.
• •Find and apply for a job. Three main ways in: apply directly to an employer, sign on with a Group Training Organisation (GTO), or search vacancies on Workforce Australia. A GTO employs you itself and places you with host businesses, which is handy if you want variety or cannot find a direct start.
• •Sign up. Once someone hires you, a free Apprentice Connect Australia Provider (ACAP) sorts out your training contract, registers it, checks your eligibility for government incentives, and gets your TAFE enrolment moving.

What you need before you start (usually less than you think)

For most trades the honest answer is: not much. You do not need Year 12 for the majority of apprenticeships, though finishing school can lift your starting pay and help you get picked.

A few practical things make a real difference:

• •A driver's licence and, ideally, a car. Many tradies drive between jobs, and "requires driving" is listed against trades like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, refrigeration and diesel mechanics. No licence is a common reason applicants get passed over.
• •A White Card (General Construction Induction) if you want to work on a construction site, which covers electrical, plumbing, carpentry, bricklaying, painting, tiling and plastering. It is a short one-off course through an RTO and is legally required to set foot on site. Hairdressing, cookery and the automotive trades do not need one.
• •Reasonable fitness and no problem with early starts, heights, weather or getting dirty. For hairdressing and cookery, swap that for standing all day and working when everyone else is off.
• •Optional but useful: a pre-apprenticeship course at TAFE (a Certificate II in your trade). It is not required, but it shows employers you are serious and gives you a taste before you commit.

Not every trade has the same size front door

This is the bit most guides skip. All 15 trades on this site start from zero experience, but the entry barrier is genuinely different from trade to trade, and knowing that changes where you aim first.

The easiest doors in are painting, plastering, tiling and commercial cookery. None of them needs an occupational licence just to work on the tools as an employee, the qualifications have no formal entry requirements, and employers in all four are chronically short of keen starters. Cookery has an extra trick: plenty of apprentices start as a kitchen hand, prove they can hack a busy service, and convert to an apprenticeship from inside the kitchen. Tilers and plasterers are in shortage around the country, so a reliable beginner who turns up with a White Card is a genuine find.

Hairdressing hires differently to every other trade. Salons pick apprentices on personality, presentation and whether you fit the team, because you will be talking to their clients all day from week one. Walking into local salons with a short resume beats any online application, many salons run paid or trial Saturdays before committing, and plenty of hairdressing apprenticeships are never advertised at all.

Diesel and heavy plant sits at the structured end. Truck and machinery dealers, transport fleets and the big mining companies run formal apprentice intake programs, often once a year, with online applications, aptitude testing, medicals and start dates. That makes it more competitive than knocking on a painter's door, but the programs are built to take complete beginners and the support and money at the mining end are hard to beat.

Auto electrical is a small trade with a side door. There are only around 10,000 auto electricians nationally, so dedicated auto electrical workshops are thinner on the ground than general garages. Plenty of people get in via the light vehicle side: a general automotive pre-apprenticeship or time in a mechanical workshop first, then a specialised auto electrical apprenticeship once they find the right shop. If you are set on it, look at heavy vehicle operations and auto electrical specialists, not just car dealerships.

At the other end, electrical and plumbing have the most applicants per spot, the heaviest study loads and licensing at the end. Worth it, but expect more competition for that first job than in the finishing trades.

How you get paid, and the honest bit about apprentice wages

Apprentice pay is set by the relevant award (or a registered agreement), not by whatever an employer feels like paying. Your rate depends on your trade, your stage in the apprenticeship, your age, and whether you finished Year 12. Adult apprentices (21 or over when they start) are on higher minimums than juniors.

You move up a pay level either after a set time (for example every 12 months) or by competency, meaning you progress when you have proven a set amount of skill. Once you finish, you are paid the full qualified tradesperson rate.

Be realistic: first-year apprentice pay is low, and that is the toughest year financially. It climbs each year. To see the actual minimum for your exact trade, age and year, use the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool rather than trusting a figure from a mate or a random site.

What qualified tradies earn (a real spread)

These are approximate full-time weekly earnings for qualified tradespeople, before tax, from the Australian Government's Your Career and Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profiles (based on ABS data, latest available). Treat them as a guide only: some are averages, some are medians, and they update as new data lands. Actual pay varies a lot with experience, location, overtime, and whether you eventually go out on your own, where the ceiling is much higher.

• •Electrician: around $2,204 a week. One of the larger and better-paid trades, with roughly 128,300 employed.
• •Airconditioning and refrigeration mechanic: around $2,019 a week.
• •Plumber: around $2,000 a week.
• •Auto electrician: around $1,888 a week. A small trade of about 10,300 people, with heavy vehicle and mining roles paying well above that.
• •Plasterer: around $1,841 a week at the median, with a wide spread because so much of the trade runs on square metre piecework.
• •Carpenter: around $1,787 a week.
• •Metal fabricator (welding and fabrication): around $1,755 a week.
• •Bricklayer: around $1,597 a week.
• •Chef: around $1,423 a week at the median (May 2025 data), before penalty rates for nights, weekends and public holidays, which lift real pay. Seniority moves it most.
• •Motor mechanic (light vehicle): around $1,405 a week.
• •Diesel mechanic: listed around $1,405 a week for the occupation overall, but that average hides the top end: heavy diesel fitters on mining sites, especially FIFO, are among the best-paid tradespeople in the country.
• •Painter: around $1,400 a week.
• •Cabinet maker: around $1,216 a week on the Your Career figure, with the broader occupation group median closer to $1,400.
• •Hairdresser: around $1,121 a week as a base, but commission, a strong client book, chair rental and salon ownership push many well past it.
• •Wall and floor tiler: no reliable published figure, because so many tilers are self-employed or on piece rates. Good subcontractors and commercial tilers do well, and the trade is in shortage in every state and territory.

Which trade? A quick, honest comparison

All 15 trades on this site are solid careers, but they are not the same. A rough guide to help you narrow it down:

• •Electrical: strong pay, big employment base, lots of vacancies, and steady demand from the shift to renewables and electrification. More theory and licensing than most trades, so the study load is heavier.
• •Plumbing: high pay, licensed, always needed. Physical, often outdoors, and yes, you deal with the unpleasant jobs.
• •Refrigeration and airconditioning: good pay and steadier, more technical work, often indoors. Demand rated stable rather than booming.
• •Carpentry: the classic construction entry trade, good demand, very hands-on. Outdoors and hard on the body over time.
• •Welding and fabrication: workshop-based, steady demand, spans construction, manufacturing, defence and mining. Can mean shift work.
• •Automotive (light vehicle): rewarding if you love cars, but pay sits at the lower end of the trades and the work is evolving fast with EVs.
• •Auto electrician: the diagnostic puzzle trade, and better paid than most people guess. Small trade, fewer dedicated workshops, and the EV shift is pushing work its way.
• •Diesel mechanic: big machinery, strong and consistent demand across transport, agriculture and mining, and the clearest path in the trades to serious mining money. Expect early starts, call outs and rosters at the top end.
• •Painting: lowest barrier to entry and lower pay, decent demand from repaints and renovation even when new building slows. Repetitive and exposed to fumes and weather.
• •Bricklaying: physically the most demanding, pay is mid-range, and vacancy numbers are thinner and more tied to the building cycle.
• •Tiling: in shortage in every state and territory, easy trade to enter and a strong market for subcontractors later. Piecework rewards speed, and it is hard on the knees and back.
• •Plastering: quick to get into, two sides to pick from (plasterboard or solid rendering), and one of the widest pay spreads in the trades because of piecework. A lot of sanding and dust in year one.
• •Cabinet making: indoors in a workshop, precise, and increasingly about CNC machines and CAD as much as hand tools. Steady rather than booming, and pay sits in the lower band.
• •Hairdressing: a people trade as much as a hands trade. Modest early pay, national shortage, work in every suburb and town, and income grows with your clientele rather than an hourly rate.
• •Commercial cookery: chefs are in national shortage year after year and a qualified chef can find work in any town in Australia and most countries overseas. The trade-off is nights, weekends and a pace that burns plenty of people out.

The downsides nobody puts on the recruitment poster

Going in with your eyes open is the point of this page. The real drawbacks:

• •The first year or two is lean. Apprentice wages start low, and that can be a shock, especially for a career changer used to a full wage.
• •It is hard on your body. Early starts, heavy lifting, heat, cold, dust and noise are the daily reality in the construction and mechanical trades, and joints, backs and hearing take a toll over decades. Hairdressers and chefs cop it differently: standing all day, hands in chemicals or heat, and shifts when everyone else is off.
• •A meaningful share of apprentices do not finish. The reasons are usually money, a poor employer, or realising the trade is not for them. Choosing well up front, and using your ACAP for support if things go wrong, matters.
• •Employer quality varies. A good boss teaches you properly. A bad one uses you as cheap labour. You can change employers and keep your apprenticeship going, so you are not trapped.
• •Work can be cyclical. Construction trades in particular rise and fall with the building industry, and the piecework trades like tiling and plastering feel a slowdown fastest. Self-employment later brings its own risks: quiet periods, chasing invoices, and no sick leave.

How to give yourself the best shot at getting hired

Since the bottleneck is landing an employer, put your energy there:

• •Get your White Card and licence sorted before you apply for a construction trade. It removes an easy reason to say no.
• •Do a pre-apprenticeship or some labouring first. Time on a site, even unpaid work experience, gives you something to talk about and a reference. For cookery, kitchen hand work does the same job. For hairdressing, ask salons about trial days.
• •Apply widely and in person. Ring around local businesses, drop in a resume, and search "apprentice" plus your trade on job sites and Workforce Australia. Salons and small building crews especially hire people who walk in.
• •For diesel and heavy plant, watch the calendar. Dealers, fleets and mining companies open structured apprentice intakes on set dates, often once a year, so find the programs in your state and apply properly when they open.
• •Sign on with a Group Training Organisation. They actively place beginners with host employers and carry a lot of the paperwork.
• •Lead with reliability, not skills. Employers taking on a first-year expect to teach you everything. What they cannot teach is turning up on time, a good attitude, and a willingness to learn. Say that, and mean it.