Howdy...

Finally doing the big move next year, heading back east (Ballina)..but not much work there so..

Looking at doing a sparkys apprenticeship next year, anyone done one / doing one?
Just after the realities of it as a trade, and how bad is the apprentice wage (for a non-teenage dude)...

Ps - any Ballina kiters out there??

Daaaave

Back in the 'old' days when i did my sparky's ticket apprentice wages where crap, only i did not know that until my wages went up sinificantly at the end of my time.

Rattlehead said...

22 years ago ,,,used to get $170 pw before tax...........

maaate 21 years ago as a 1st yr prentice plumber i got 300 after tax! you got ripped off!

register with some kind of apprentice group training organisation, it can be like a labour hire for apprentices type thing, you might be lucky and do all your time with one mob or you might be lucky and get to see all aspects of the trade you're training in by being exposed to different employers and your trades applications; depends how you wanna look at it.

adult apprentices are more and more looked upon as being valuble employees as they tend to be more mature and most times come with some sort of decent skill set already, the wages aren't all that bad.

theDoctor said...


register with some kind of apprentice group training organisation....

adult apprentices are more and more looked upon as being valuble employees as they tend to be more mature and most times come with some sort of decent skill set already, the wages aren't all that bad.

I've had trouble in the past with the big organisations when trying to procure a sparky apprenticeship. They all rant about the values of a safety focused person with a varied work history - but in reality, they want a 17yr old school leaver that costs about half as much and won't complain about doing remedial slave labour, or a current employees' mate's kid...also the kids come out of school these days with specific pre-trade training as a result of school based apprenticeship programs.

You might be better off chatting to a few of the local small businesses.

As a regular electrical apprentice with an industrial electrical manufacturer, 2nd year was 580 after tax. Cant remember 1st year.
As a mature age apprentice however, (i believe over 21) it is around the 800ish mark i believe.

About to finish 2nd year :)

Saw a blurp from Australian apprentices that mature age sparky gets min of $510 per week 1st year,, not great, but better than i expected..

If i can budget and find someone back nth nsw to take me on, will do it...