Hiring an Apprentice: Employer Obligations

What it is

Hiring an apprentice is not hiring a worker who happens to study. It is a three-way arrangement between you, the apprentice and a registered training organisation, held together by a training contract that a state authority registers. Until that contract is registered you have an employee, not an apprentice, and you cannot pay apprentice rates.

The training contract is the gate

Clause 14.1(b) of MA000020 defines an apprentice as an employee bound by a contract of training registered with the appropriate state or territory training authority.

The Fair Work Ombudsman puts it plainly: apprenticeships must be registered with a state or territory training authority, and the timeframes for registering vary from state to state.

The sequence: pick the qualification and an RTO, which clause 14.1(e) limits to organisations registered by the Australian Skills Quality Authority, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority or Western Australia's Training Accreditation Council; sign the training contract; lodge it inside your state's timeframe.

An Apprentice Connect Australia Provider does this legwork with you at no charge. If a source still calls them the Australian Apprenticeships Support Network, it predates the 2024 change.

Probation sits outside the award. It is set by your state or territory training authority and its length differs by jurisdiction, so confirm it rather than borrowing a number from another state.

What you owe once they start

• Release for training. Clause 14.2(b) says an apprentice must be permitted to be absent from work, without loss of pay or continuity of employment, to attend the off-the-job training in the contract of training. Clause 14.2(c) goes further: time at training and assessment is time worked, for wages and for conditions. TAFE day is a paid work day.
• Fees and textbooks. Clause 14.6 makes you reimburse all fees charged by the RTO and prescribed textbooks paid by the apprentice, within 6 months of the start of the apprenticeship or a stage, or 3 months of the start of RTO training, whichever is later, unless progress is unsatisfactory. Clause 14.6(b) lets you pay the RTO direct.
• Block release travel. Where training needs an overnight stay, clause 14.8 makes you pay excess reasonable travel costs.
• Supervision. Clause 14.3(a) is absolute: no apprentice will work overtime or shiftwork on their own or without supervision.

Wages, super and workers compensation

Apprentice pay is a percentage of the standard rate, which the award defines as the CW3 level, and it steps with stages rather than birthdays. That is its own subject and the most common source of apprentice underpayment.

Behind the wage an apprentice is an employee like any other. Superannuation guarantee runs at 12 per cent with no carve-out, and since 1 July 2026 Payday Super requires contributions to reach the fund within 7 business days of each qualifying earnings payment. Fund receipt is the test, so clearing house lag counts against you. Workers compensation cover is required in every state.

The incentives that actually apply

Check these before you budget: they move with each Budget.

For a residential builder the one that matters is the Key Apprenticeship Program Employer Incentive under the Housing Construction stream. Eligible employers claim up to $5,000 in the first year of a full-time apprenticeship, paid as $2,000 at 6 months and $3,000 at 12 months, where the apprenticeship commenced on or after 1 January 2026 and the qualification is Certificate III or higher on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List, flagged as housing construction.

If the occupation is on the Priority List but not flagged housing construction, the Priority Hiring Incentive pays up to $2,500 in the first year.

The apprentice has their own stream worth raising at interview: up to $10,000 across a full-time apprenticeship, paid in five instalments, where they commenced on or after 1 July 2025.

Completing or cancelling

Completion is not automatic on time served. Clause 19.7(d) lets the apprenticeship finish early once the qualification is completed and the apprentice has the practical experience to be competent, agreed between the RTO, you and the apprentice.

Cancelling or suspending a training contract runs through the state training authority, not through you alone. Ending the employment does not by itself end the contract.

Clause 14.2(d) applies the NES notice of termination provisions to apprentices, so daily hire notice does not help here. Clause 14.2(e) and s123(4)(a) exclude apprentices from redundancy pay, but if you keep them on after completion the apprenticeship counts as service for the award and long service leave.