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

The qualification: Certificate III in Wall and Floor Tiling (CPC31320)

The national qualification for tilers is CPC31320 Certificate III in Wall and Floor Tiling. As at September 2026 it is the current version on training.gov.au (it replaced the older CPC31311). It covers 20 units of competency: 17 core and 3 electives, taking in surface prep, wall and floor tiling, waterproofing for tiling work, and specialist jobs like mosaics and curved surfaces.

The nominal duration is 4 years as an apprenticeship, but it is competency based. Most TAFEs deliver the off the job training over about 3 years inside a 3 to 4 year training contract, and if you can prove your skills early you can finish early. You train in blocks or day release at TAFE while working full time on the tools.

What you will actually learn

CPC31320 Certificate III in Wall and Floor Tiling packs 20 units of competency, 17 core plus 3 electives. Strip away the paperwork and it is a list of skills you can see and touch: floors that are dead flat, walls that line up perfectly, and wet areas that never leak. Here is what you actually do.

• •Get safe on site first: your white card, plus applying WHS rules on real construction jobs (CPCCWHS2001), working around other trades, plant and live edges.
• •Read plans and specs, then measure up and calculate exactly how many boxes of tiles, bags of adhesive and litres of membrane a job needs. Getting this wrong costs real money, so you learn it early.
• •Prepare substrates properly: check concrete and sheeting for flatness and movement, grind, patch and prime, and lay sand and cement screeds with falls so shower water actually runs to the drain.
• •Waterproof wet areas (CPCCWF3009): bond breakers, corners and penetrations, rolling out membrane to the right thickness. This is the part that stops bathrooms leaking, and it is a core unit for good reason.
• •Set out rooms for square and level: find your datum, strike level lines, plan the layout so cuts sit even at both ends and the feature wall is centred. Setout is the difference between a tiler and a tile layer.
• •Cut tiles every way there is: score and snap on a manual cutter, wet saw for porcelain and stone, grinder for L-cuts, holes and mitred edges.
• •Master adhesives and grouts: pick the right adhesive for the tile and substrate, choose your notched trowel, back-butter big tiles for full coverage, then grout, clean off and seal without smearing the whole job.
• •Learn wall and floor technique as separate skills: fixing wall tiles plumb and straight without slump, and laying floor tiles flat with no lippage, including doorways, steps and falls.
• •Step up to the fancy stuff: decorative features and borders, mosaic tiling, tiling curved surfaces, and handling large format tiles with levelling systems.
• •Repair and reconstruction work: cut out drummy, cracked or dated tiles and match in new ones without wrecking the surrounding job.
• •Electives vary by RTO but commonly include pool and spa tiling, basic concreting, or estimating and quoting so you can price your own work later.

Year by year: how the training usually runs

Every employer and RTO runs this a bit differently, and the whole qualification is competency based: you finish when you can prove the skills, not when a calendar says so. Quick learners with good employers regularly wrap up early. The nominal term is 48 months, and most TAFEs deliver the actual coursework across the first three years of that. Treat this as the typical shape, not a promise.

• •First year: TAFE covers the foundation core units, safety, communication, measuring and calculations, reading plans, tools and materials handling, then moves into surface prep and waterproofing basics. On site you are mixing adhesive, carting tiles, cutting for your tradesperson, prepping and priming floors, and keeping the job clean. By the end of the year you should be trusted to screed and waterproof under supervision.
• •Second year: training gets into the bread and butter, installing floor tiles and wall tiles properly, setout, and the start of decorative work. On the job you are laying real walls and floors yourself with the boss checking your setout and finish. First solo bathroom floor or laundry usually lands around here, and your training plan units start getting signed off steadily.
• •Third year: the advanced units, mosaics, curved surfaces, decorative features, repairs, and depending on your electives, pools and spas or estimating. Most TAFEs finish classroom delivery this year. On site you are running your own rooms start to finish, setting out tricky layouts, handling large format, and starting to price small jobs in your head.
• •Fourth year: usually little or no TAFE left, this year is about speed, consistency and finishing any outstanding units on your training plan. You work like a tradie, full bathrooms and commercial areas on your own, and maybe supervise a first year. Once every unit is signed off, your contract is completed and you are a qualified wall and floor tiler. If you got competent early, this stage can be shortened.

Pre-apprenticeship: Cert II Construction Pathways

If you are still at school or trying to get a foot in the door, the common pre-apprenticeship is the Certificate II in Construction Pathways (CPC20220, current on training.gov.au). It gives you white card level basics, hand and power tool skills, and a taste of several trades, and it makes you a much easier hire for a tiling contractor.

Some states run tiling specific versions. In WA, North Metropolitan TAFE offers a Certificate II in Building and Construction (Pathway, Trades) with a wall and floor tiling pre-apprenticeship stream. A pre-app is not compulsory, but employers like it, and some units can credit into your Cert III.

How you actually enrol

You do not sign up for a tiling apprenticeship like a uni course. First you find a tiling contractor willing to put you on as an apprentice. The employer then sets up the paperwork through an Apprenticeship Connect provider (the free government funded network), a training contract gets registered with your state training authority, and you and the employer pick the RTO together.

Still at school? Ask about a school based apprenticeship. You start paid work and training in Years 10 to 12 and convert to full time when you finish school.

Where you can study: fewer campuses than the big trades

Tiling is a small intake trade. Carpentry runs at dozens of campuses per state, but tiling usually runs at one or two. Here is where the public TAFEs deliver CPC31320 as at September 2026. Always confirm with the TAFE, because small trades move campuses.

• •NSW: TAFE NSW runs the Cert III as an apprenticeship at a small number of Sydney campuses, but intake locations are not always listed online. Call TAFE NSW on 131 601 or check the course page for current locations.
• •VIC: Holmesglen delivers it at the Chadstone campus in Melbourne. It is one of the few Victorian TAFEs running tiling, so expect to travel.
• •QLD: TAFE Queensland delivers it at Acacia Ridge (Brisbane) and Nambour (Sunshine Coast).
• •WA: North Metropolitan TAFE at Balga and South Metropolitan TAFE at Rockingham.
• •SA: TAFE SA delivers it at Tonsley in Adelaide. The course page notes it gets a large number of applications, so places can be tight.
• •TAS: TasTAFE offers it as an apprenticeship. Check with TasTAFE for which campus your blocks run at.
• •ACT: Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) runs it over 6 semesters part time in blocks of 3 days every 3 weeks.
• •NT: we could not find a public provider delivering tiling locally as at September 2026. Talk to Australian Apprenticeships NT about your options, and search training.gov.au for any RTO registered to deliver CPC31320.
• •To see every provider nationwide, look up CPC31320 on training.gov.au and open the list of RTOs approved to deliver it. Private RTOs like Trinity Institute Australia and Wyatt Education Group (Sydney) and Everthought Education also deliver it, mostly for existing workers and RPL.

What it costs, state by state (as at September 2026)

Fees below are for apprentices doing government subsidised training. Fees change every year, so treat these as a guide and check the state's live page before you sign anything.

• •NSW: fee free. Apprenticeships funded under Smart and Skilled that start before 30 June 2027 have no student fee at all.
• •VIC: subsidised, not free. Holmesglen lists the government subsidised apprentice fee at about $3,458 for the whole course, or about $692 with a concession, plus a small services fee. Free TAFE covers some pre-apprenticeship courses but not the apprenticeship itself.
• •QLD: free if you are under 25 and start a priority apprenticeship before 30 June 2027 under Free Apprenticeships for Under 25s. Otherwise funded apprentices pay a regulated co-contribution of $1.60 per nominal hour, with concession rates available. Confirm tiling's status on the Queensland Skills Gateway.
• •WA: capped annual fees under Lower Fees, Local Skills. You pay no more than $400 a year if you are 15 to 24 or hold a concession, or $1,200 a year otherwise.
• •SA: subsidised through the state training system. TAFE SA's course page listed a subsidised apprentice fee of about $4,014 (about $2,490 concession) as at September 2026. Check the live TAFE SA page for the current figure.
• •TAS: subsidised for apprentices with a registered training contract. TasTAFE did not publish a simple apprentice fee at the time of writing, so check the live TasTAFE course page.
• •ACT: subsidised for apprentices through ACT government funding at CIT. Check CIT's live course page for the current fee.
• •NT: the NT government subsidises apprentice training, but with no local tiling delivery found you will need to sort delivery arrangements first. Check the NT government apprenticeships pages.

Who actually pays the fees

Plenty of tiling employers pay the TAFE fees for their apprentices, and in some cases they have to. Under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, employers generally must pay or reimburse an apprentice's training fees and textbook costs if you are progressing satisfactorily, either up front or on reimbursement.

Do not guess. Check your award and entitlements on fairwork.gov.au, and use the Fair Work pay calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au to check your apprentice wage rate. Raise fees with your employer before you enrol, not after the invoice lands.

Doing the Cert III without an apprenticeship

You can pay full fee and do the qualification through institutional delivery, but for tiling it is rarely the smart move. Full fee rates are steep: TAFE SA lists the full fee version of the course at around $22,048. You also graduate without the 3 to 4 years of on the job experience that employers and licensing bodies want to see.

The exception is experienced workers. If you have been tiling for years without the ticket, recognition of prior learning (RPL) or programs like TAFE NSW's Trade Pathways for Experienced Workers can get you the Cert III much faster and cheaper than starting from scratch. That matters if you want a contractor licence in NSW or QLD.

Licensing: when you need more than the Cert III

The Cert III makes you a qualified tiler, but once you contract directly to clients, licensing kicks in for the two big east coast states.

In QLD, you need a QBCC wall and floor tiling licence to do tiling work worth more than $3,300 (including GST, labour and materials). For a contractor licence QBCC also wants a business unit (BSBESB402) on top of your trade qualification.

In NSW, you need a contractor licence from NSW Fair Trading for residential tiling work worth more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST. CPC31320 is the accepted qualification, and individual applicants also need a recent National Police Check.

Most other states do not run a standalone tiling licence, but some require a general building or contracting registration once you contract to homeowners. Check your state's building regulator before you start quoting your own jobs.

Costs beyond the course fees

Budget for more than the TAFE invoice. Tilers need a decent starter kit: trowels, levels, a quality wet saw or cutter, knee pads, plus steel caps and other PPE. Expect to build the kit up over your first year or two, and ask your employer what they supply before you buy anything big.

Help is out there. Apprentices can access the national Living Away From Home Allowance if you have to move for work, most states run travel and accommodation subsidies for block training, and some offer tool rebates or subsidies for apprentices. Your Apprenticeship Connect provider can walk you through what you qualify for, and do not forget that tool costs are generally tax deductible once you are earning.