electrical apprenticeship advice needed

[weedo_86]

hey guys ive been thinking about a career change for a while and becoming a sparky ive been doin some running around as of late but not getting anywhere basically what i want to know is: Is it possible to do a pre app at night school? what sort of wage would I be on being a 21 year old 1st year? its just a matter of biting the bullet and either dropping pay or working night to make sure the bills are paid and that kind of stuff. any info greatly appreciated

cheers Dave

[Ripcell]

hey mate, i doubt u will be able to find a preap night course, one of our apprentices is 25, hes on 250 p/w take home, we work for a sole trader so the wage is ****, if we worked for a pty ltd it would be worth more, about 550 p/w, if you want big bux, get onto the union construction sites. to end up there u will need to do a pre app tho, ur best bet would be to find one for a smaller business, u should be able to find a job without a pre app

[bigred304]

yeh i agree with the guy above, i work on a union site as a 2nd yr sparky. In my first year i was takin home 560 a week as a 18 yr old. You may be classed as an adult apprentice im not sure. Best advice i can give you, look up 'NECA' on the net, an do their test they hold around october. Best chance of getting a job with a big mob is that way

[Boonz]

its hard starting an apprenticeship after your 19-20

pretty much the only way round it is a second weekend or after hours job for a few years

[weedo_86]

yeh union sites is where the money is, 500 p/w take home sounds good for an apprentice, ive found a few pre app course running roughly 15 weeks so it might be good to do one of them, and then work after school

[coolvxss]

Hey man. i did a pre apprenticeship course at start of this year. It was 8 till 3.30-4 mon to fri for 7 weeks. I have not heard of any night courses. I had to give up my job to do the course. But i was living at home so it was not too bad. All up i was not working for about 2.5 months then i got an apprenticeship and haven't looked back since. Money isnt great but you will prob get more because you will be a mature age student. I get about $380 a week.

[Joey_21]

lol doesnt matter bout ur age the still pay u first year wages and also good luck finding an electrical apprenticeship unless u know some1 u basically have a slim chance of getting one everyone wants to be one well thats in melbourne anyway but theres only one way to get one and thats try lol

[vorn]

unless you know someone in the industry the you will have trouble finding an appr. as Joey_19 said.
But if you want to know how much you would get as a appr. here is the etu site Construction EBA but defiantly get yourself a job with a big mob that get paid union wage.

[Ripcell]

i think mature age wage is after 31, we have got a 26yo apprentice who is on the same money as me and im 20

[f1tzy]

In qld, mature age starts at 21. The mature age we have with us takes home around 500 per week which is what im on at 20yrs old during 3rd year. Biggest problem is finding an employer to take a mature age on simply for the reason that they have to pay more but it doesn't mean they are any better. I would reccomend looking for a pre voc course

[cracker]

good trade to get into if u can, union sites pay more but u dont get to move around much and dont seem to learn as much.

[JBDrifter]

i think mature age wage is after 31, we have got a 26yo apprentice who is on the same money as me and im 20

Mature age definitely starts at 21. I started my apprenticeship 3 months before my 21st birthday and was told I was lucky to have just snuck in before I turned 21, otherwise I would not have been given the job. Sounds like the 26yo apprentice is being ripped off.

[Ripcell]

Mature age definitely starts at 21. I started my apprenticeship 3 months before my 21st birthday and was told I was lucky to have just snuck in before I turned 21, otherwise I would not have been given the job. Sounds like the 26yo apprentice is being ripped off.

ahh ok, i stand corrected, haha sucks to be our other apprentice, $250 take home p/w for him

[hsvpunk]

i think in vic Mature age is 25.
as centrelink said i earned to much do do sertain stuff... so i kept with baking.

Good luck with it dave. *more boost for the ute

[Holdfast]

hey guys ive been thinking about a career change for a while and becoming a sparky ive been doin some running around as of late but not getting anywhere basically what i want to know is: Is it possible to do a pre app at night school? what sort of wage would I be on being a 21 year old 1st year? its just a matter of biting the bullet and either dropping pay or working night to make sure the bills are paid and that kind of stuff. any info greatly appreciated

cheers Dave

Dave

Sparkies do lots of different work as you may know.

For good dollars and a future that has plenty of potential why not investigate the mining industry.

Mining companies put on electrical apprentices and they are very short on trades people or young blokes that want work.

Depending on exactly where you live may limit your options but there's also companies that build mine infrastructure in major cities.

Also there's good money for electrical mechanics working on large machines.

Household sparky work can be a lesser than expected job; as an apprentice you'll get plenty of time crawling around hot cielings of rat and mouse infested places installing new conduits etc.

Best of luck

[Nanos]

In vic there is no mature age wage for a apprentice sparky.

How do i know this??? I am a manager for a electrical compnay and we just signed a mature appentrice that was mature age. if you ring wage line or speak with neca they can email you all wage details.

Wage for 1st year is crap though. good industry to be in though once you have youtickets you will get paid well. base rate works out just a little over $10 per hour.

If you get onto union jobs in the city though thats whre the money is as you get site allowances, height allownaces etc... the list goes on.

[Pub247]

If nanos is right then all you can hope for is your employer is willing to pay a decent wage i'm a mature age apprentice (started when i was 22 almost) my base pay first year was around 12.80 (my work pays minmum allowed) but there are apprentices in school that are getting around 16 an hour and they are only 18 . It really depends on the employer

[AttaBoy]

So... how much on average do a sparky earn after the apprenticeship??

[Nanos]

depnds on what they do. domestic, commercial, union. work for boss or go out on there own.

have a look at neca website and that will give you a good idea of base starting wages.

[Holdfast]

Yeah, as above^^^^^

Just google Electrician wages

Or google Employment agencies.

Also, if you need some extra cash:

Any fit young bloke can get about $20 - $30 an hour labouring on a building site once you have a green card.

[Pub247]

labouring = no qaulification appreticeships do which is the only real point to doing an apprenticeship

[one_and_only2004]

I've almost finished my first year. She's a bit stingy in the pay packet, even for a 18 y/o . I asked my boss about +21 apprentices and she said that you'd get the same pay as i do - 238ish a week. As for people saying that electrical apprenticeships are hard to come by, 7 people in my school year are all doing one, along with another one just being signed up a few weeks ago (and this is in a town of 3000 people)

[Niggadore]

I started an electrical fitting apprenticeship about a month ago..
Like others have said, theres alot of differant types of sparky work... I'm on $370pw.
The job i'm in seems fair good, although i'd much raher be working with a union..
I completed year 10, and a Pathways pre apprenticeship - differant to a pre apprenticeship.
The way i see it is, most companies are too scared to take on apprentices due to lack of safety skills/OH&S thus why alot of employers require year 11/12 and a pre app. i got lucky, even though most would say i'm not in the best line of work...