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

The qualification: Certificate III in Painting and Decorating (CPC30620)

The national qualification for painters is CPC30620 Certificate III in Painting and Decorating. As at September 2026 it is the current code on training.gov.au. It replaced the older CPC30611, and the two are treated as equivalent, so if your boss did the old one it still counts. Always double check the code on training.gov.au before you sign anything, because training packages get updated.

The apprenticeship runs a nominal 3 to 4 years, but completion is competency based. That means if you can prove you are competent across all the units, you can finish early. Some apprentices knock it over in around 3 years, others take the full 4. You cover surface prep, brush and roller work, spraying, wallpapering, texture coating, colour matching and working safely at heights and with hazardous coatings.

What you will actually learn

CPC30620 is 29 units of competency, and 26 of them are locked-in core units, so every painting apprentice in the country covers the same backbone: safety, prep, application, then the fancy stuff. Here is what that actually looks like on the tools.

• •Construction site safety from day one: WHS rules on site, plus the access skills painters live on, working safely at heights, setting up trestles and planks, erecting restricted height scaffold and driving an elevated work platform up to 11 metres.
• •Surface prep, the real secret of the trade: washing down, sanding, filling holes and cracks, patching plaster, stripping flaky old coatings back to sound, and priming bare timber, plasterboard, render and metal so the topcoats actually stick.
• •Brush and roller technique (CPCCPD3022): cutting a dead-straight line against a ceiling with no tape, laying off doors so there are no brush marks, and rolling walls without fat edges, misses or roller lap marks.
• •Spray painting: setting up airless and conventional spray gear, adjusting fan and pressure, and laying flawless coats on ceilings, doors, fences and big commercial walls at ten times brush speed.
• •Colour matching and colour consultancy (CPCCPD3025): tinting paint to match an existing colour by eye, and learning enough colour theory to talk a client through a whole-house scheme like a pro.
• •Wallpaper: measuring up, cutting, pasting and hanging paper, matching patterns across drops, working around windows and switches, and stripping the old stuff without wrecking the wall.
• •Texture coatings: applying texture finishes by brush, roller and spray, the look you see on render, feature walls and commercial facades.
• •Stains, varnishes and clear timber finishes: making decks, doors, handrails and timber features glow instead of just painting over them.
• •Decorative paint finishes near the end: marbling, graining, sponging and other special effects that separate a decorator from someone who just slaps paint on.
• •Protective coating systems: heavy-duty industrial coatings that stop steel and concrete rusting and rotting, which is where a lot of the big-money commercial work sits.
• •Hazard tickets built into the course: working safely with lead-painted surfaces (CPCCPD3031) and encapsulating non-friable asbestos, both common in older Aussie houses and both units the whole industry takes seriously.
• •The business brain: reading plans and specs, measuring up rooms, calculating how much paint a job needs and costing the work, plus small jobs like taking off and rehanging doors and replacing door and window hardware.

Year by year: how the training usually runs

Every employer and RTO runs this a bit differently, and the exact year split varies by state, so treat this as the typical shape rather than a promise. Painting apprenticeships usually sit on a contract of up to four years, with the TAFE side often delivered over the first three, and because completion is competency based you can finish earlier if you get signed off faster.

• •First year: TAFE covers the foundations, site safety, tools and equipment, handling and storing materials, measurements, reading plans and the start of surface prep. On the job you are the prep and cleanup machine: laying dropsheets, sanding, filling, masking, washing down and brushing undercoats while you watch how the tradies work. By the back end of the year you should be trusted to prep a room properly on your own.
• •Second year: at TAFE you get deep into application, brush and roller technique, preparing coated and uncoated surfaces, working at heights, scaffold and EWP tickets, and at many RTOs the lead paint and asbestos safety units. On site you graduate from prep to production: cutting in and rolling full rooms, doing exterior repaints, and getting your first go on the spray gun under supervision. Your logbook or training profile starts filling up with signed-off skills.
• •Third year: TAFE moves to the skilled end, spray application, colour matching, wallpaper, texture coatings, stains and clear finishes, decorative effects, and costing and estimating jobs. Most RTOs finish the formal units this year, which feels like a milestone in itself. At work you are running whole rooms and small jobs start to finish, talking to clients about colours, and your boss starts pricing your time like a near-tradie.
• •Fourth year: usually little or no TAFE left, this is the consolidation year where you work at full tradie speed and quality while the last competencies and your contract get signed off. You will likely be trusted to run jobs solo, supervise a first-year and handle the client. Once you are signed off you are a qualified painter and decorator, and if you later want to contract in your own right, some states such as Queensland require a separate painting licence, so check your state's rules. Strong performers who get their competencies signed off early can complete before the four years is up.

Pre-apprenticeship: Certificate II in Construction Pathways (CPC20220)

If you cannot land an apprenticeship straight away, a pre-apprenticeship is a solid move. The usual one is CPC20220 Certificate II in Construction Pathways, which is current on training.gov.au and includes painting and decorating skills alongside other construction basics. Some TAFEs also run a painting specific Cert II pre-apprenticeship, like the Certificate II in Building and Construction Pre-apprenticeship (Painting and Decorating) in Victoria.

Does it help? Yes. Employers like hiring someone who has already held a brush, done a White Card and shown up to class for a few months. In some states a completed pre-apprenticeship can also shave time off your apprenticeship. It is free or cheap in most states: it is on the Free TAFE list in Victoria, and Tasmania funds fee free pre-apprenticeship places through its construction programs. Check your state training authority's live page.

How you actually enrol (it is not like uni)

You do not apply to TAFE and wait for an offer. The order is: first you get a job with a painting business willing to take you on as an apprentice. Then the employer contacts an Apprenticeship Connect provider (the free national apprenticeship network) who sets up the training contract. That contract gets registered with your state's training authority, and you and your employer choose a registered training organisation (RTO) together, usually the local TAFE.

You then attend trade school in blocks or one day a week while working the rest of the time, and the RTO signs off units as you prove them on the job and in class.

Still at school? Ask about a school based apprenticeship. You start the Cert III part time in Years 10 to 12, get paid for the days you work, and roll into a full time apprenticeship when you finish school.

What the training costs, state by state

Good news: right now most states charge apprentices little or nothing for the course itself. These figures are as at September 2026. Funding rules change, so always check the state's live page before you rely on a number.

• •NSW: fee free. Apprenticeships funded under Smart and Skilled have no student fee for training that commences before 30 June 2027. That waives what used to be a fee of up to $2,000. Check the Skills NSW fee free apprenticeships page.
• •VIC: subsidised, not free. Apprenticeships are not covered by Free TAFE, but apprentice tuition is government subsidised and charged per student contact hour, so you typically pay a few hundred dollars a year plus materials. Check your TAFE's course page for the current apprentice rate.
• •QLD: free for most. Free Apprenticeships for Under 25s covers training costs for priority qualifications (painting included on the priority list) for training contracts commenced between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2027, and QLD has also funded free construction apprenticeships for over 25s. Once you are in, funding continues to completion. Check the qld.gov.au free apprenticeships page.
• •WA: capped low fees. Under Lower fees, local skills, annual course fees are capped at $400 per year if you are 15 to 24 or hold a concession, and $1,200 per year otherwise, plus resource fees. Check Jobs and Skills WA.
• •SA: subsidised for eligible apprentices through Skills SA, and SA has run fee free places in construction courses. What you pay depends on the provider and current funding, so check skills.sa.gov.au before you enrol.
• •TAS: TasTAFE apprentice training is heavily subsidised and Tasmania has funded fee free places for selected courses and construction pathways. The general Fee-Free TAFE list excludes people already in an apprenticeship, so check the TasTAFE apprentices page for what you would actually pay.
• •ACT: subsidised through Skills Canberra, but RTOs must charge a minimum fee of $350 for apprenticeship training. CIT delivers the painting Cert III in Canberra. Check the ACT Qualifications Register for the fee on this exact course.
• •NT: subsidised through the NT Government, with training mostly delivered by Charles Darwin University, and some fee free TAFE places have been available. Fees are low but check CDU and the NT training pages for the current figure.

Who actually pays the fees

In the states where fees still exist, do not assume the bill is all yours. Plenty of painting employers pay the TAFE fees for their apprentices as part of the deal.

On top of that, the award that covers most painting apprentices (the Building and Construction General On-site Award) requires the employer to either pay the course fees and textbook costs up front or reimburse you, provided you are making satisfactory progress. Check the exact clause for your situation on the Fair Work website or ring the Fair Work Infoline. For apprentice pay rates, do not trust random websites: use the official Fair Work pay calculator.

Where you can study it

Every state has public TAFE delivery, and there are a handful of industry RTOs that specialise in painting. To see every provider approved to deliver CPC30620, look the code up on training.gov.au and open the RTOs tab: that list is the only complete one.

• •NSW: TAFE NSW (multiple campuses run the painting Cert III).
• •VIC: Victorian TAFEs including Melbourne Polytechnic, Bendigo TAFE, The Gordon and TAFE Gippsland.
• •QLD: TAFE Queensland.
• •WA: South Metropolitan TAFE and North Metropolitan TAFE, plus MPA Skills, the Master Painters industry RTO that trains a big share of WA painting apprentices.
• •SA: TAFE SA.
• •TAS: TasTAFE.
• •ACT: Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT).
• •NT: Charles Darwin University (CDU TAFE).
• •Industry RTOs: Master Painters associations in several states run or partner on training and licensing courses, and some group training organisations (GTOs) employ painting apprentices directly and host them out to businesses.

Can you do the Cert III without an apprenticeship?

Some private RTOs offer CPC30620 by institutional delivery or recognition of prior learning (RPL) at full fee, often several thousand dollars. For most people starting out, this is not the smart route. Painting is a hands-on trade: employers want time on the tools, and the licensing bodies want proof of real industry experience, not just a certificate. A full fee Cert III with no site hours behind it does not make you a painter.

Where it does make sense: if you have already worked for years as a painter's labourer or overseas trained painter, an RPL assessment against CPC30620 can formalise your experience so you can apply for a licence. If that is you, pick an RTO carefully, confirm it is listed against the code on training.gov.au, and get the full cost in writing.

Licensing: when a painter needs one

You do not need a licence to work as an apprentice or as an employee painter. Licences kick in when you contract directly with clients. The rules are state by state and the thresholds matter:

• •QLD: you need a QBCC painting and decorating licence for painting work valued over $3,300 including labour and materials. The Cert III plus a small business management unit are the standard technical and managerial requirements.
• •NSW: you need a contractor licence from NSW Fair Trading for residential painting work over $5,000 in labour and materials including GST. Fines for unlicensed work are steep.
• •SA: painting counts as building work, so contracting painters need a building work contractors licence through Consumer and Business Services (CBS). Check the CBS site for current thresholds and requirements.
• •WA: painters who contract or supervise painting work over $1,000 must be registered with the Building Services Board (through the WA building and energy regulator). The standard pathway is the Cert III plus small business and estimating units, and you must show solid industry experience.
• •VIC, TAS, ACT, NT: no painter specific licence for standard painting work as at September 2026, but general building, contracting and consumer laws still apply. Check your state regulator before quoting jobs.

White Card, lead paint and the other costs

Before you set foot on a construction site you need a White Card (general construction induction training, unit CPCWHS1001). It is a short course, usually under $200, and some states run free or subsidised White Card programs. Do it through a properly approved provider in your state.

Lead paint is a real hazard in this trade. Australian houses painted before 1970 commonly have paint with high lead content, and lead was not cut to today's trace levels until 1997. Dry sanding or burning off old lead paint can poison you and the household. The Cert III includes working safely with lead painted surfaces (unit CPCCPD3031), and AS/NZS 4361.2 is the standard for lead paint management in homes. Take it seriously: it is one of the things that separates a trained painter from a bloke with a roller.

Budget for the rest too: brushes, rollers, scrapers and a basic kit, workwear and PPE (respirator with the right cartridges, not just a dust mask), and textbooks if your employer does not cover them. Most states offer apprentice support such as travel and accommodation subsidies for block training, and some have tool or trade support payments. Ask your Apprenticeship Connect provider what you can claim, because plenty of apprentices leave money on the table.