Jobs & PathwaysUpdated July 2026

Welding and fabrication apprenticeship pathway

Quick answer

You become a qualified welder or boilermaker by completing an apprenticeship in MEM31925 Certificate III in Engineering - Fabrication Trade, the nationally recognised qualification listed on training.gov.au. It runs for about four years, splitting most of your time on the job with block or day-release training at TAFE. There is no single welding licence, but you will need a white card for construction sites and, for higher end work, welder qualifications tested against Australian standards.

Welding and fabrication is one of the most in-demand trades in Australia, and it is a proper hands-on apprenticeship: four years of learning to cut, fit and weld steel while you earn. Here is how the pathway actually works, from getting signed up to what your first year looks like on the tools.

The qualification you are working towards

The nationally recognised trade qualification is MEM31925 Certificate III in Engineering - Fabrication Trade. You can confirm it on the national register at training.gov.au. It is the current version and it supersedes the older MEM31922, MEM30319 and MEM30305 codes, so if you see any of those on an older ad they are the same trade.

Most TAFEs market it as the Fabrication Trade (Boilermaking / welding) stream. It is competency based and built to be delivered through an apprenticeship, mixing on the job work with structured training. To pass you complete a set number of unit points, including all the core units plus a spread of welding and fabrication electives.

The nominal duration is around four years full time. Because it is competency based, a strong apprentice who picks up the skills quickly can finish a bit sooner. The job titles it leads to include boilermaker, metal fabricator, structural steel tradesperson and first class welder.

How you get in

The main rule: you have to be employed as an apprentice before you can start the qualification. You are signed up (indentured) with an employer, and your training contract is registered with your state or territory training authority.

There are a few ways in. A pre-apprenticeship, such as a Certificate II in Engineering Pathways, is a good taster that gets you basic hand skills, a resume line and a foot in the door. A school-based apprenticeship lets senior high school students start early and carry credit into a full apprenticeship. Some people just apply straight to a fabrication shop.

You can be taken on directly by an employer, or you can go through a Group Training Organisation (GTO). A GTO employs you and hosts you out to host businesses, which is handy if a small shop cannot commit to four years or wants to try you first. Either way you end up doing the same qualification.

What TAFE and the on the job side look like

The bulk of your time, roughly four days a week, is on the tools at work. The rest is off the job training at TAFE, usually delivered as day release or block release (a week or two at a time).

At TAFE you learn to read engineering drawings, mark out and cut, and run the main welding processes: manual metal arc (stick), gas metal arc (MIG), gas tungsten arc (TIG) and flux cored arc welding, plus thermal and oxy cutting. You practise on coupons and scrap before you are trusted on real jobs.

On site you put it together: measuring, cutting, grinding, tacking, fitting up and welding steel and other metals to a drawing. Your employer signs off that you can actually do the work, not just talk about it. Keep your log book honest, because that record backs your sign off.

Licensing and registration, and how it varies by state

There is no single occupational licence to be a welder or fabricator the way there is for electricians or plumbers. What you need instead depends on where and what you weld.

To work on a construction site you need a construction induction card (the white card), issued through the work health and safety regulator in your state or territory (for example SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkSafe QLD, WorkSafe WA or SafeWork SA). Welding itself is not high risk work, but if you also operate certain plant such as a forklift or an EWP you will need the matching high risk work licence from that same regulator. Rules and application steps differ a little between states, so check your local one.

For higher end work, coded and pressure welding, you get qualified against welding standards (for example the AS/NZS 1554 and ISO 9606 families). These welder qualifications are tested and certified, often through Weld Australia or an employer's quality system, and they can lapse if you do not keep welding, so they need renewing. Separately, your apprenticeship itself is registered and overseen by your state or territory apprenticeship authority.

Where the work is and how strong demand is

Fabrication and welding is one of the trades the country is short of. Welder, pressure welder and metal fabricator all sit on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List, and welding trades show up on Jobs and Skills Australia's Occupation Shortage List. Industry bodies have warned of a large national shortfall of welders over the coming years.

Because it is a priority occupation, apprentices can access extra support. That includes priority occupation training support payments and access to Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans, which you only start repaying once your income passes the threshold and which carry a discount if you complete.

The work sits across manufacturing, construction, transport, mining and resources, defence, shipbuilding and repair and maintenance. Skills travel well between states and into remote and FIFO work, which is part of why good welders are chased.

Residential, commercial and industrial: how the job differs

Residential and light fabrication is your smaller shops and mobile work: balustrades, gates, handrails, stair stringers, trailers and repairs. Shorter jobs, more variety, often more finishing and tidy welds that will be seen.

Commercial work leans into structural steel for buildings, mezzanines, staircases and architectural metalwork. There is more drawing work, more standards and inspection, and bigger fabricated assemblies.

Industrial and heavy fabrication is the big end: pressure vessels, piping, mining plant, structural steel for infrastructure and shipbuilding. It is where coded welding, strict procedures and testing matter most, and where sites are more often run under an enterprise agreement with better conditions. The trade off is tighter quality control, more paperwork and often shift or remote work.

Honest first-year expectations

Year one is a lot of grunt work. Expect plenty of grinding, cleaning, deburring, cutting, materials handling and setting up for the tradespeople before you are let loose on the good welds. That is normal and it is how you earn trust.

It is hot, loud and physical. You will be in full PPE, dealing with sparks, fumes, heavy lifting and awkward positions. Good habits with your gear and your body early on save you later.

You will spend real money on boots, gloves, a decent helmet and hand tools, and TAFE study blocks pull you off the job for a bit. Check whether your state or employer offers any tool or training rebates. Show up on time, ask questions, look after your log book, and by the end of first year you will be running beads on real work and starting to feel like a tradie.

Sources and official links

Straight from the source. These open in a new tab.

Welding Apprentice Hub

Keep reading: Jobs & Pathways

See all →

How to get an apprenticeshipDo a pre-apprenticeship or some work experience, put together a simple one-page resume, then attack it from several angles at once: ring and doorknock local employers, register with a Group Training Organisation (GTO), and get a free Apprentice Connect Australia provider working for you. If you want a big employer like a utility or tier-one builder, watch their annual intake window, because applications often open a full year before the January start.Pre-apprenticeships explainedA pre-apprenticeship is a short TAFE or RTO course (usually a Certificate II, three months to two years) that gives you basic trade skills, a White Card and some work placement before you commit to a full apprenticeship. You are a student, not a paid employee. In some trades, especially electrical, it is close to a hiring requirement; in others, like carpentry and automotive, plenty of employers take people on with no pre-app at all.Apprenticeship resume templateKeep an apprenticeship resume to one page: contact details, a short intro, education (including your maths level), any work experience, tickets and licences like the White Card and your driver's licence near the top, and two referees. Then get it in front of people: plenty of apprenticeships are won by phoning builders and handing printed copies over on site, not just emailing PDFs to job ads.Common apprenticeship interview questionsMost apprenticeship interviews focus on why you want the trade, whether you will turn up reliably, and whether you can take direction and handle the physical and safety side of the job. Bigger employers and group training organisations often add a literacy and numeracy aptitude test or a paid trial day on top of the chat. Answer honestly, do a bit of homework on the business, and have questions ready about pay, tools and how your training will run.

Still stuck? Ask a tradie

Got a question? Ask it anonymously. We publish the best ones with answers from qualified tradies.

General guidance only

Answers here are general guidance to point you in the right direction - always check official sources and ask your supervisor for your specific situation.