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

The qualification: MEM31925 Certificate III in Engineering, Fabrication Trade

The trade ticket for welders, boilermakers and sheetmetal workers is MEM31925 Certificate III in Engineering, Fabrication Trade. That is the current code on training.gov.au as at September 2026. It replaced MEM31922 (first released September 2025), which itself replaced the older MEM30319. If a course page still shows MEM31922 or MEM30319, ask the provider what code you would actually be enrolled in, because new apprentices should be going into MEM31925.

The apprenticeship runs about 4 years nominal, but it is competency-based. Prove you are competent across the required units and you can finish earlier. The qualification covers metal fabrication, structural steel, sheetmetal, welding, blacksmithing and surface finishing, and you can steer it towards heavy fabrication (boilermaking) or light fabrication (sheetmetal) through your elective choices.

Before you land an apprenticeship, the MEM20422 Certificate II in Engineering Pathways is the standard pre-apprenticeship. It is a short pre-vocational course at TAFE where you get workshop time on welders, oxy gear and hand tools. It is not compulsory, but it shows employers you are serious, gives you basic skills, and can earn credit towards the Cert III.

What you will actually learn

The MEM31925 Certificate III in Engineering, Fabrication Trade is built from about a dozen core units plus electives you pick with your employer, 96 points all up. Strip away the unit codes and it is four years of learning to turn flat steel into real structures: cutting it, shaping it, welding it, and proving your welds are good.

• •Start with the basics that keep you alive in a workshop: working safely around hot metal, fumes, grinders and cranes, plus manual handling so you do not wreck your back lifting plate (MEM13015 is the big safety unit).
• •Get properly good with hand and power tools: grinders, drills, magnetic base drills, files and hacksaws, because fabrication is as much grinding and fitting as it is welding.
• •Read fabrication drawings and turn them into steel (MEM09002): views, sections, weld symbols, tolerances, then measure and mark everything with rules, squares, verniers and string lines.
• •Mark out and set out full size jobs: laying out cut lines, hole centres and fold lines on plate and sections, and developing templates for cones, transitions and pipe intersections.
• •Run an oxy torch: manual heating, flame cutting and gouging, plus mechanical cutting on guillotines, cold saws and plasma gear (MEM05007 covers the thermal side).
• •Learn stick welding (MMAW), the rough and ready process used on site, on structural steel and on repairs, and get your runs neat in flat, horizontal and vertical positions.
• •Learn MIG (GMAW), the bread and butter workshop process, laying consistent welds on plate and sections, then TIG (GTAW) for the fine, clean work on thin material, stainless and aluminium.
• •Form and shape metal: rolling plate into cylinders, pressing and folding, bending sections, and using heat to shape and straighten without ruining the steel.
• •Fabricate and assemble complete jobs: fit up, tack, square, brace and weld out frames, brackets, hoppers, guards and structural assemblies, then repair and modify existing ones.
• •Pick a stream flavour with your employer: boilermaking and welding is the heavy end (structural steel, tanks, pressure equipment, mining and plant work), while sheetmetal is the lighter, more precise end. Most welder/fabricator apprentices sit in the boilermaking and welding stream.
• •Learn weld quality: what porosity, undercut and lack of fusion look like, how welds get inspected and tested, and how to weld to a procedure so your work can pass a coded weld test later on.

Year by year: how the training usually runs

Every employer and RTO runs this a bit differently: some do day release, some do block release, and the TAFE side is often finished by year three even though the apprenticeship runs about four years. Completion is competency based, so if you can prove the skills you can finish sooner. Treat this as the typical shape, not a promise.

• •First year: TAFE covers safety, hand and power tools, measuring, engineering calculations and reading basic drawings, and you strike your first arcs, usually stick and oxy work on scrap plate. On the job you are the extra set of hands: grinding, drilling, cutting to length, holding jobs square and tacking under supervision. By the end of the year you should be trusted to prep material and lay simple tacks without someone hovering.
• •Second year: TAFE moves into MIG welding, thermal cutting, marking out and basic fabrication and forming, and your welds start getting judged properly instead of just praised for existing. At work you are running your own welds on non critical jobs, fitting up brackets and frames from drawings, and doing small tasks start to finish. First solo fabrication jobs usually land this year, and your training plan sign offs start stacking up.
• •Third year: TAFE gets into the good stuff: TIG welding, template development for cones and transitions, rolling and forming, and welding to set procedures with your work inspected against real quality standards. Many RTOs wrap up the classroom component around the end of this year. On the job you are building complete assemblies from the drawing with minimal checking, and tradies start treating you like one of them.
• •Fourth year: usually little or no TAFE left, just closing out any remaining units while you work close to full tradie level: complex fab work, site installs, repairs and supervising the new first year. Your employer and RTO sign off your final competencies and the apprenticeship contract ends with you a qualified fabrication tradesperson, ready to sit coded welding tickets for structural or pressure work if your career needs them. Because it is competency based, strong apprentices sometimes get signed off early.

Welding tickets are not a trade qualification

You will hear blokes talk about getting their "tickets": AS 1796 certificates (numbered 1 to 9, plus the Certificate 10 supervisor ticket) and welder qualification to AS/NZS ISO 9606.1. These are short-course certifications that prove you can weld a specific joint, in a specific position, with a specific process, to a code. Employers on structural, pressure and defence work ask for them, and testing is generally run through Weld Australia's WeldQ system, with practical courses delivered at TAFEs and Weld Australia's network of Advanced Welder Training Centres.

Here is the thing: a ticket alone does not make you a qualified tradesperson. A ticket says you passed one weld test. The Cert III says you are a tradie who can read drawings, cut, form, fit and weld to spec across a whole job. Most ticket courses recommend you already have trade-level welding experience before you front up. The smart order is: apprenticeship first, tickets on top. Tradies with a Cert III plus current ISO 9606 or AS 1796 tickets are the ones getting the big money on shutdowns and pipe work.

How you actually enrol

You do not apply to TAFE like a uni student and wait for an offer. The way in is an apprenticeship: an employer takes you on, and an Apprentice Connect Australia Provider (the free government-contracted service, formerly the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network) does the sign-up. They lodge your training contract, it gets registered with your state training authority, and you and the employer pick the RTO that delivers the off-the-job training.

Once the contract is registered, the TAFE or RTO enrols you and you attend as block release or day release while you work. Still at school? A school-based apprenticeship lets you start the Cert III part-time in Years 10 to 12 in most states.

• •Find an Apprentice Connect provider at apprenticeships.gov.au, they cost you nothing
• •The employer and you choose the RTO together, you have a say
• •No employer yet? Do the Cert II Engineering Pathways and hit up local fabrication shops with it on your resume

What the training costs, state by state

Course fees for apprentices are heavily subsidised everywhere, and in several states they are currently zero. These figures are as at September 2026. Funding rules change with budgets, so always 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. Check the Skills NSW fee-free apprenticeships page
• •VIC: subsidised, not automatically free. Apprentices get a government-subsidised place and pay a tuition contribution that varies by TAFE, with concession rates for Health Care Card holders. Check your TAFE's fee page and vic.gov.au
• •QLD: free if you are under 25. Free Apprenticeships for Under 25s covers training fees for priority trades (fabrication included) for starts before 30 June 2027. Otherwise the standard TAFE Queensland apprentice rate is about $1.60 per nominal hour, which the employer often pays. Check the Queensland Government free apprenticeships page
• •WA: low fee. Apprentice fees are charged per nominal hour and fabrication sits under the Lower fees, local skills program with annual fee caps. See the current indicative apprentice fees on the Jobs and Skills WA and TAFE websites
• •SA: subsidised. For qualifications on the Subsidised Traineeship and Apprenticeship List the government pays the course fee to the training provider, though you may still pay materials charges. Check skills.sa.gov.au
• •TAS: subsidised through the Skills Tasmania Apprentice and Trainee Training Fund. Note that Tasmania's separate Fee-Free TAFE program does not cover apprentices. Use the TasTAFE fee calculator for your course
• •ACT: subsidised with a fee. RTOs must charge at least a $350 enrolment fee for an Australian Apprenticeship, and CIT lists exact fees per qualification. The ACT also pays a cost of living payment to eligible apprentices. Check act.gov.au skills pages
• •NT: subsidised NTG training place through Charles Darwin University, and some priority courses are fee-free under the NT's free training initiative. Check nt.gov.au and the CDU fees page

Who actually pays the fees

In a lot of shops, the boss pays the TAFE fees, and under the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020 (MA000010) that is more than good manners. The award requires the employer to reimburse an apprentice's fees for the prescribed course and prescribed textbooks unless the employer paid them up front, provided your progress is satisfactory. Reimbursement is due within 6 months of starting the apprenticeship or that stage of it, or within 3 months of starting training with the RTO, whichever is later.

If government funding already covers the fee, there is nothing for the employer to reimburse. Not sure which award covers you or what it says? Check with the Fair Work Ombudsman. And for wages, do not rely on anyone's guess: run your details through the Fair Work pay calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au.

Where you can study

Every state's main public provider delivers the fabrication trade qualification and welding short courses:

• •NSW: TAFE NSW, plus industry RTOs like Superior Training Centre in Sydney
• •VIC: Victorian TAFEs including Bendigo Kangan, The Gordon, Melbourne Polytechnic and TAFE Gippsland
• •QLD: TAFE Queensland, plus industry RTOs like Outsource Institute
• •WA: South Metropolitan TAFE and North Metropolitan TAFE
• •SA: TAFE SA
• •TAS: TasTAFE
• •ACT: Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT)
• •NT: Charles Darwin University (CDU TAFE)
• •For welding tickets, Weld Australia's Advanced Welder Training Centres operate inside many of these TAFEs
• •To see every RTO approved to deliver the trade course, search MEM31925 on training.gov.au and open the "RTOs approved to deliver" list

Can you do the Cert III without an apprenticeship?

For this trade, mostly no, and that is by design. The training package states the qualification must be undertaken through a training contract (an apprenticeship) or through formal trade recognition. So you will not find many TAFEs selling the full Cert III fabrication course to walk-in, full-fee students the way some trades do.

The exception is recognition of prior learning. If you have years of real fabrication and welding experience, say from overseas or from working as a trades assistant on the tools, an RTO can assess your skills against MEM31925 and issue the qualification through trade recognition, and each state also has its own recognition pathway. That route costs real money (often a few thousand dollars, varies by provider) and you need genuine evidence. For anyone starting from scratch, the apprenticeship is the smart route anyway: you earn wages the whole way through, your fees are subsidised or free, and you graduate with 4 years of real workshop time that no classroom can copy.

Costs beyond course fees

Budget for more than tuition. The good news is most states throw rebates and payments at apprentices to soften it.

• •PPE from day one: steel caps, welding jacket or leathers, gloves, helmet, safety glasses. Even the Cert II pre-apprenticeship expects you to bring your own
• •Tools: fabrication apprentices build a kit over time, and a decent auto-darkening helmet alone runs a few hundred dollars
• •Textbooks and workbooks: remember the Manufacturing Award can put these back on the employer
• •Welding tickets later on: AS 1796 and ISO 9606 practical courses and tests are separate paid short courses. As a guide, TasTAFE lists AS 1796 practical certification units around $2,556 each as at September 2026, and Weld Australia exam fees are paid through WeldQ
• •Help available: the ACT pays eligible apprentices a cost of living payment including a tools top-up for first years, and most states run tools-for-your-trade style rebates or travel and accommodation subsidies for block release. Ask your Apprentice Connect provider what you qualify for