Apprenticeships in Tasmania: incentives, fees and where to start

Who runs apprenticeships in Tasmania

Your training contract is approved by the Tasmanian Traineeships and Apprenticeships Committee (TTAC) under the Training and Workforce Development Act 2013. Skills Tasmania, part of the Department of State Growth, does the day-to-day work: it registers contracts, funds training, registers Group Training Organisations and pays the travel and accommodation contribution.

The TTAC Policies (current version 1 July 2026) set the rules. These are the ones that matter most to you.

• •Your contract must be signed by you and your employer and lodged for approval within 28 calendar days of your start date.
• •You must be employed full time or part time for the whole contract. Casual apprenticeships aren't allowed.
• •Part-time contracts need at least 15 hours of work a week (unless TTAC approves otherwise), and can't run longer than twice the normal full-time term.
• •Your training provider (RTO) must put a training plan together with you and your boss within three months of registration (one month for school-based apprentices), and should review it with you at least twice a year.
• •You finish when you're assessed as competent, not when the calendar says so. If you and your RTO reckon you're ready early, your employer has to support the assessment or give reasons why it can't happen.

Signing up: Apprentice Connect providers in Tasmania

You don't sign up with Skills Tasmania directly. An Apprentice Connect Australia provider, contracted by the federal government, lodges your training contract, checks which incentives you and your employer can get, and keeps an eye on how you're going. Their service is free.

They're also your first port of call if something goes wrong with your apprenticeship. Skills Tasmania lists these providers working in the state:

• •Mas National: 1300 627 628
• •Apprenticeship Support Australia (ASA): 1300 363 831
• •BUSY At Work: 13 28 79
• •A specialist provider also supports women in male-dominated trades and apprentices working toward clean energy jobs. Ask Skills Tasmania or apprenticeships.gov.au who it is.

What training costs in 2026

As at October 2026 there's no Tasmanian fee-free apprenticeship scheme, and we couldn't find a published state fee cap for apprentices. Skills Tasmania subsidises your training instead. Private RTOs get the money through the 2026 Apprentice and Trainee Training Fund (ATTF), which opened 28 November 2025 and runs to 31 December 2026. TasTAFE is funded through its own arrangement with the government.

The subsidy only covers part of the cost. The rest comes from you and/or your employer, and your RTO has to tell you both the subsidy amount and what you'll pay before or at enrolment. Plenty of employers pay the student fee, so ask before you sign. Fees change by course and provider, so check the live course page.

To get an ATTF-funded place you must have a registered training contract in Tasmania and be a Tasmanian resident, and you can't already be funded for the same training from another government source. You also can't have had the same qualification subsidised in the past five years.

• •TasTAFE concessions: you may get a concession fee if you're on a Centrelink payment (JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY or a pension), you're listed as a dependant on a Centrelink card, or you hold a Health Care Card. Bring your evidence when you enrol.
• •Concession fees apply once in any 12 months for each course. For multi-year courses like most trades, TasTAFE splits the fees and bills you each year around your enrolment anniversary.
• •Concessions don't cover textbooks, workbooks or protective clothing.
• •Fee-Free TAFE in 2026 is NOT for apprentices or trainees. TasTAFE says people doing an apprenticeship or traineeship, or still at school up to Year 12, aren't eligible. It covers tuition only, and you get one Fee-Free course in 2026.
• •There's no age limit on an apprenticeship in Tasmania. Adult apprentices sign the same contract, though your pay rate under the award may differ.

Travel and accommodation contribution for block training

This is Tasmania's main cash support for apprentices, and it's live. Skills Tasmania's policy (issued 1 September 2025) sets the rates, and the Tasmanian Government confirmed the allowance in its 2026-27 Concessions and Discounts Guide on 4 October 2026. It's a contribution, so it may not cover everything, and it doesn't replace anything your award says your employer must pay.

You're eligible if you have an active Tasmanian training contract, you're funded under the ATTF or TasTAFE, you're a Tasmanian resident, you have to travel for off-the-job training or assessment in your training plan, and you're doing an entry-level qualification for your trade. Rates as at October 2026:

• •Driving within Tasmania: 41 cents a km if you travel 21 km or more one way to your nearest training centre. West Coast apprentices (Queenstown, Strahan, Zeehan, Rosebery, Trial Harbour and Tullah) get 45 cents a km.
• •Accommodation within Tasmania: $55 a night if you travel 61 km or more one way. Weekends aren't covered. Between 21 km and 61 km you get travel only.
• •Flinders, King and Cape Barren Islands: the cheapest return flights booked through Corporate Travel Management (CTM), a $60 airport transfer payment per training period, and $55 a night, including weekends if training runs into the next week.
• •Interstate training: the cheapest return flights booked through CTM, a $60 airport transfer payment and $100 a night, including weekends if training runs over. You book and pay for your own accommodation.
• •How to claim in Tasmania: fill in the claim form, sign it and give it to your RTO teacher, who confirms you attended and sends it to travelclaims@skills.tas.gov.au. Claims must be in within four weeks of your last day of training.
• •Interstate: Skills Tasmania emails you a travel warrant about eight weeks before training. Book your flights with CTM straight away. If the warrant expires (two weeks before training) and you haven't booked, you may have to pay for the flights yourself.
• •You won't be paid if your employer already covers travel or accommodation, if training is held at your workplace, or if you and your boss pick an interstate RTO when the training is available in Tasmania. Want to take the Spirit of Tasmania instead of flying? Get Skills Tasmania's permission before you buy a ticket.

Other money: what's live and what's closed

We couldn't find a current Tasmanian state tool grant, first-year bonus or completion bonus for apprentices as at October 2026. Check the live Skills Tasmania funding page before you go chasing one.

The big one for building apprentices is federal. The Key Apprenticeship Program pays new housing construction apprentices $10,000 as five $2,000 payments over the apprenticeship, and pays employers $5,000 in the first year. The 2026-27 federal Budget locked it in until 2029. Your Apprentice Connect provider checks if you qualify.

On the employer side, Tasmania's payroll tax rebate covers apprentices who started between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2026, for up to two years. The trainee window (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) and the youth employee window have closed. As at the State Revenue Office page last published 29 April 2026, no extension was listed for apprentices starting after 30 June 2026, so employers should check the live page. It only matters to businesses big enough to pay payroll tax, and the rebate can't be more than the payroll tax paid.

Pay and conditions

In Tasmania, only state public sector employees stay in the state industrial relations system. Local councils and private businesses, including sole traders and partnerships, are in the national Fair Work system, so unlike WA there's no separate state award system for private apprentices to worry about.

Your pay comes from your national award, such as the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020, or from an enterprise agreement (EBA) if your employer has one. An EBA has to leave you better off overall than the award. To check your rate, use the Fair Work Pay Calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au or call the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94.

Tassie quirk for building apprentices: under the TTAC Policies, if you've finished a Certificate II in Construction (CPC20120) or Certificate II in Construction Pathways (CPC20220), you can get six months' time credit on a new Certificate III construction apprenticeship. Your contract runs for 42 months instead of 48, and you move to second-stage pay after six months. You'll need documentary proof that you finished the Certificate II.

Licences and safety regulators

From 1 October 2026, the old CBOS (Consumer, Building and Occupational Services) was split into Consumer Affairs Tasmania and Building Standards Tasmania. Trade licences (electrical, plumbing, gas-fitting and builder) are now handled through Consumer Affairs Tasmania's licensing pages. Older references to CBOS now mean whichever of the new agencies does that job.

WorkSafe Tasmania is the safety regulator. If something's unsafe, raise it with your supervisor or health and safety rep first. If nothing changes, or someone gets badly hurt, call WorkSafe Tasmania on 1300 366 322 or use Notify WorkSafe on their site. You can't be punished for raising a genuine safety issue.

• •Electrical, plumbing and gas-fitting apprentices: apply for your practitioner licence within one month of finishing your training. Keep working under supervision until your licence is granted.
• •You can only apply once you've finished your training contract and been granted your qualification.
• •Carpenters, concreters and bricklayers aren't licensed in Tasmania. If you later want to manage or certify building work, you'll need a builder's licence.
• •If your employer sells electrical or plumbing work to the public, they must hold a contractor licence, or they can't sign a training contract with you. Check it before you start.

Where to train

TasTAFE is the main trade trainer. It runs apprenticeships, traineeships and pre-apprenticeships across the state. Call 1300 655 307 or email apprenticeshipinfo@tafe.tas.edu.au.

Private RTOs can also train you. If you want the government subsidy, your RTO has to be Skills Tasmania eligible and hold an ATTF grant for your qualification, so ask them straight up before you enrol.

Group Training Organisations (GTOs) employ you and place you with host businesses, which helps if work's patchy or you want to try different sites. Skills Tasmania registers GTOs in the state, and you'll find them on the Group Training National Register at apprenticeships.gov.au.

• •South: Clarence campus (Warrane), Campbell Street and Collins Street (Hobart).
• •North: Alanvale (Newnham) and Paterson Street (Launceston).
• •North-West: Burnie and Devonport.
• •Water and Energy Trades Centre of Excellence at the Clarence campus, Warrane: a key site for plumbing and electrical trades.
• •Tasmanian Clean Energy Centre of Excellence: listed as coming soon in Burnie.
• •Agricultural Training Centre of Excellence: Freer Farm, Burnie.

School-based apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships

In government schools, a school-based apprenticeship is called an ASbA (Australian School-based Apprenticeship). Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 can work, train and keep working toward their Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE), with more than 140 approved qualifications to pick from. Year 9 students are looked at case by case and need approval from their education authority, an exemption from school, or both.

If you're keen on a building trade, a pre-apprenticeship is a smart start. Skills Tasmania's Fee-Free Construction Fund put $900,000 into 2026 for Certificate I and II construction pre-apprenticeships delivered by endorsed RTOs. That's funding for training providers (their applications closed 28 January 2026), so ask TasTAFE or your local RTO if they have fee-free construction pre-apprenticeship places left. Finishing a Certificate II can also earn you six months' credit on your apprenticeship (see Pay and conditions).

• •You must work at least 7.5 paid hours a week. That can be one or two days in school time, or after school and on weekends.
• •You get paid for training, both on the job and off site.
• •Your education authority has to endorse the contract, and you must still meet your school attendance requirements.
• •Many trade qualifications run past Year 12, so you're signing up for the full term, not just until you leave school.
• •Government school students can email asba.admin@decyp.tas.gov.au or talk to their school's pathways staff.

Where the work is

Housing is the clearest signal right now. In the first 13 months of the federal Key Apprenticeship Program, 801 Tasmanians signed up as new housing construction apprentices with 453 employers. Carpentry led with 347 starts, then plumbing with 122, then glaziers, plasterers and tilers with 77. More than half were 19 or under (federal release, 26 August 2026).

TasTAFE's investment points to the same trades and beyond. There's a dedicated Water and Energy Trades Centre of Excellence at Clarence and a Clean Energy Centre of Excellence on the way in Burnie, so electrical, plumbing and clean energy work is where the state is spending its training money.

Before you lock in a trade, check the Jobs and Skills Australia Occupation Shortage List (jobsandskills.gov.au). It rates shortages state by state, including Tasmania.

Who to call, and changing or cancelling your contract

Got a problem with your boss, your training or your contract? Start with your Apprentice Connect provider. If your apprenticeship is at risk or the provider can't sort it, contact Skills Tasmania and ask for a Senior Apprenticeships Officer. TTAC is the body that approves training contract changes, suspensions and cancellations in Tasmania.

Any change to your contract needs TTAC approval and doesn't take effect until it's approved. Talk to your provider about lodging the change.

• •Skills Tasmania: 1800 655 846 or enquiries@skills.tas.gov.au. Travel claims: travelclaims@skills.tas.gov.au.
• •Fair Work Ombudsman (pay and conditions): 13 13 94.
• •WorkSafe Tasmania (unsafe work, injuries): 1300 366 322.
• •TasTAFE: 1300 655 307.
• •Suspension: you can apply to suspend your contract for significant medical or personal reasons, or for a work shortage once your employer has tried everything else. Work shortage suspensions are capped at four weeks per calendar year unless circumstances are exceptional, and your contract end date moves out by the time suspended.
• •Cancellation: you and your employer can agree to cancel, or TTAC can cancel the contract if it's appropriate, including when the job has ended. Don't just walk off. Get it formally cancelled through your provider.
• •Changing employers: your old contract is cancelled and you sign a new one with the new employer, lodged within 28 days of starting. Time you've already served can count as credit toward the new contract, so ask your provider to apply it.