Apprentices

An apprentice is an employee who learns their trade or profession while working for an employer under a training contract.

On this page:

Overview

Many of an apprentice's entitlements will be the same as other employees. These are the minimum entitlements under the National Employment Standards and include annual leave, sick leave, public holidays and breaks.

Awards and registered agreements can have specific entitlements or rules that apply to apprentices. There may be other entitlements in awards and registered agreements that apprentices don't get.

Use our Find my award tool or search an agreement at Fair Work Commission website – Find an agreement to check the entitlements that may apply.

For more information, watch our apprenticeship and traineeships video.

Check out our apprentice guides for employers and employees

Find the information you need to know when taking on an apprentice, or starting an apprenticeship in our easy-to-use guides:

Payment for time spent at training

Off-the-job training is time spent in structured training delivered by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). It's often delivered at a site away from the workplace and referred to as trade school. It doesn't include:

  • normal work duties or
  • supervised practice on the job.

Record My Hours app

Our free Record My Hours app makes it quick and easy for employees to record the hours they work and the time they spend attending training. 

Employees can use the app to:

  • record their hours of work and rosters
  • take and add photos of information that belongs to the employee, like their own pay slips
  • back-up information collected to iCloud or Dropbox and recover it easily.

Find out more at Record My Hours app.

Apprentices

Time spent at trade school is paid time and is included in an apprentice’s ordinary hours of work (for example, 38 hours for a full-time employee).

An apprentice and their employer must agree on how often they will attend trade school (for example, 1 day per week or week blocks of training). This is usually set out in their training plan.

If an apprentice doesn’t go to trade school when they’re supposed to, they won’t be paid for this time unless they were on sick leave or another type of leave.

School-based apprentices

For school-based apprentices, payment for trade school isn't worked out based on the actual hours the employee attends training. Instead, the apprentice is paid 25% of the hours they work for their employer each week.

The 25% is counted as hours worked by the employee. For more information, read our Library article about Entitlements for school-based apprentices.

Example: Payment for training for school-based apprentices

Sean is a full-time school student doing a school-based apprenticeship. He works 8 hours per week with his employer.

Sean is paid:

  • for the 8 hours per week he works with his employer and
  • 2 hours per week for his off-the-job training (25% of 8 hours).

In total, Sean needs to be paid 10 hours per week.

Payment for training:

  • only applies if the employee is a full-time school student
  • is paid at the full-time apprentice hourly rate (including any all-purpose allowances)
  • can be averaged over a semester or the year.

If the employee isn't a full-time student, they will be paid their hourly rate for all the time spent in training.

Find award specific entitlements by using our industry filter.

Training costs – fees and textbooks

Many awards have entitlements for training costs, fees and textbooks.

An apprentice should be reimbursed for:

  • all the fees charged by the RTO that are related to their training
  • the cost of their prescribed textbooks for their apprenticeship.

Check the award to find out when an apprentice should be reimbursed.

When training costs aren't reimbursed

An employer doesn't have to reimburse an apprentice for fees and textbooks if:

  • their progress in the course is unsatisfactory
  • the employer pays the costs and fees directly to the training organisation, or
  • they are not working for the employer at the set time that the costs have to be reimbursed.

If the Government reimburses an apprentice for any part of the training, the employer doesn’t have to reimburse the apprentice for those expenses.

Read more about training costs in our Library article - Apprentice training costs - unsatisfactory progress.

Check our industry filter for specific award rules.

Find award specific entitlements

Find more information about award entitlements for apprentices by selecting from the list of industries below.

Industry Embedded Filter Placeholder

If an award isn't listed, use List of awards to access the one that applies.

Queensland apprentices

Apprentices in Queensland may have different entitlements. Visit our Pay and Conditions Tool for more information.

Tools and resources

Related information

Have a workplace problem?

Problems can happen in any workplace. If you have a workplace problem, we have tools and information to help you resolve it.

Check out our Fixing a workplace problem section for practical information about:

  • working out if there is a problem
  • speaking with your employer or employee about fixing the problem
  • getting help from us if you can't fix the problem.