The real pros and cons of a trade career

The deal you are actually being offered

An apprenticeship is a job and a qualification at the same time. You work for an employer, get paid, and do your training (usually at TAFE or a registered training organisation) alongside the work. At the end you have a nationally recognised trade qualification and years of real experience.

This is the single biggest upside, and it is real. You are not paying full uni fees and racking up a large debt before you start earning. You earn from day one.

• •Earn while you learn: you are paid throughout, not paying to study full time.
• •No large tuition debt for the training itself, and portable, nationally recognised qualifications you can take anywhere in Australia.
• •A clear path to a licence in the regulated trades (electrical, plumbing, gas), which is worth a lot because not just anyone can do the work.
• •Government incentives and low-cost Apprenticeship Support Loans exist for some priority trades to help with living and learning costs.

The money, without the hype

Here is the part people gloss over: apprentice pay is low, especially in the first year. Apprentice wages are set by the relevant award and depend on your trade, your year (rates step up each year), your age, and whether you finished Year 12. Adult apprentices (21 and over) attract higher minimums. Do not take a random dollar figure off social media as gospel. Check the exact rate for your situation on the Fair Work Pay Calculator.

The reward comes after you qualify. Once you are a qualified tradesperson the pay lifts a lot, and the licensed trades sit well above the average Australian wage. The figures below are approximate median earnings for full-time adult workers from the Australian Government's Job Outlook profiles (data around 2023 to 2024). They move each year and vary by experience, location, overtime, and whether you end up running your own business, where earnings can be much higher but so is the risk.

The trades pay very differently

Do not treat all trades as one thing. Pay and demand vary widely. For context, the all-jobs median for full-time adults on Job Outlook is around $1,460 a week. Rough full-time adult figures by trade:

• •Plumbing: around $1,890 a week. High pay, licensed, consistently strong demand.
• •Electrical: around $1,820 a week. High pay, licensed, very strong demand and a serious skills shortage.
• •Welding and fabrication: broadly in line with or a bit above the all-jobs average. Tied to manufacturing, construction and mining, and can involve travel or FIFO work.
• •HVAC and refrigeration: around the average wage, with demand rising as construction and cooling needs grow.
• •Automotive (motor mechanics): around $1,440 a week. Steady rather than booming demand.
• •Carpentry: around $1,360 a week. Huge trade, strong construction demand, thousands of openings a year.
• •Painting: around $1,370 a week. Lower barrier to entry (no occupational licence), which also means more competition and more casual or subcontract work.
• •Bricklaying: established bricklayers on piece rates can earn well, but demand is the softest of this group and the work is among the most physically punishing.

It is genuinely hard on your body

This is the downside that gets waved away and shouldn't be. Trades are physical. You are on your feet, lifting, kneeling, in heat and cold, often for long days. Full-time tradies commonly work around 44 to 46 hours a week.

The injury data backs this up. Construction accounts for a large share of serious workers' compensation claims, and body stressing (the wear-and-tear and lifting injuries) is the single most common cause of serious claims across Australian workplaces. Trades and technical workers are over-represented in injury statistics. A career that starts easy on a 17-year-old body can catch up with you in your 40s and 50s. Good employers, good technique, and looking after yourself matter, but the physical toll is real and worth planning for.

Not everyone finishes, and that is the biggest risk

Starting an apprenticeship is not the same as finishing one. National figures (NCVER) put trade apprenticeship completion at only just above half, meaning a large share, roughly 4 in 10, do not complete. Most people who drop out do so in the first two years.

Why? Low starting pay, not clicking with the employer, the physical shock of full-time manual work, or realising the trade is not for them. None of that is shameful, but it is expensive in time. The lesson is simple: choose the trade and the employer carefully, expect the first year to be the hardest, and line up support before you start.

Job security is good, but it is not bulletproof

The upside: Australia has real skills shortages in trades like electrical and plumbing, and demand for construction trades is strong for years ahead. A licensed trade is hard to offshore and hard to automate.

The honest caveat: much of this work is tied to the building cycle. When construction slows (higher interest rates, a housing downturn), hours and new work can dry up, and apprentices and subcontractors feel it first. Some trades are steadier than growing (automotive is fairly flat), and some are more cyclical (bricklaying). Security is good on average, but no trade is immune to a downturn.

Who it suits, and who it doesn't

Be honest with yourself. A trade tends to suit you if you learn by doing, get bored sitting at a desk, like seeing a finished result, and can cop instruction and a bit of grunt work early on. It tends not to suit you if you dislike physical work and heights or confined spaces, want a high salary immediately, or struggle with early starts and rough conditions.

It is also a legitimate second-chance career. Plenty of people switch into a trade in their 20s or 30s as adult apprentices. The pay dip while you retrain is the main hurdle there, so plan your finances before you jump.

How to test it before you commit

You do not have to guess. There are low-risk ways to try a trade before signing up for years:

• •Do work experience or a labouring stint with a local business in the trade you are eyeing.
• •Look at a pre-apprenticeship or a school-based apprenticeship to sample the work and training.
• •Consider a Group Training Organisation (GTO), which employs you and rotates you between host businesses, so one bad host is not the end of your apprenticeship.
• •Talk to people two or three years ahead of you in that exact trade, not just the ones running their own successful business now.
• •Use the government's Your Career and Job Outlook profiles to check pay, hours and demand for the specific trade, and the Fair Work Pay Calculator for what you would actually be paid as an apprentice.