Apprentices... How much you earning a week?

[vn calais manual]

3rd year diesel motor mechanic $12.40 an hour on 38 hour weeks. pretty piss poor but ya get that.

 

[f1tzy]

Are you solid or wallboard? (think they call it fibrous these days?)


I'm only 16 atm but will most likely be starting an apprenticeship after year 12. Thinking of doing either plumbing, solid plastering or carpentry.
My dad's a solid plasterer, so that will be an advantage if I choose to take that path.
Electricians seem to be on the money at the moment.........but then I'm not really into electrics so meh.

But its kinda ironic, that I'm working at maccas, and get nearly 10 bucks an hour, (getting a payrise when I turn 17). But oh well, I'm fairly certain you make A LOT more once you come off apprenticeship. I usually earn in the range of $130 - $280 a week.

Yea im a fibrous plasterer

 

[Troy711]

And plumbers..

You don't have to be into "electrics" to be an electrician. It's just labour work basically, setting up support systems for your cables, running cables and knowing how to fit off the apparatus (power points/lights/switches etc.). The labour work is a hell of a lot easier than most other trades, especially plastering and carpentry, and the money is better.

There is some damn good money to be made in plastering

 

[drift-it]

3rd year mechanic 13.09p/h, 38 hour week

 

[lucas_arts_182]

Im a 1st year sparky, im on $287 for a 38 hour week. @ $7.55 an hour

 

[danja]

Your comment is totally unrelated to the topic. What has uni got to do with apprenticeships?
With uni everything you do is to benefit yourself with apprenticeships yes you gain benefit for yourself but you also benefit your employer by providing lost cost labour and there are also great incentives from the goverment to the employer. It is only fair that you get paid even if it is measley and you work as hard and some people do just as good job as fully qualified people.

For my employer apprentices are just a means to end lost cost labour is what its all about they dont care about teaching you they dont care your schooling. Hell they even told one apprentice that he couldnt go to school as they needed him to work instead.

I think you've misunderstood me, it's not at all unrelated.

I wasn't weighing into the debate about how much apprentice work is worth compared to "qualified" work. I was simply saying that if there was some kind of arrangement at uni where you could get payed while you learn, people would love it, even if by comparison to fully qualified jobs it was a pittance.

The reason I make this comparison, is that you can jump (or drop) out of high school, and straight into TAFE, where after a relatively short time you can start an apprenticeship where you start earning real money (albeit not great), while still studying/training. Compare that to uni, out of high school you spend at least 3 years, paying large fees, earning nothing, then walk away with a bit of paper and hope someone will hire you because of it.

 

[Shounak]

Compare that to uni, out of high school you spend at least 3 years, paying large fees, earning nothing, then walk away with a bit of paper and hope someone will hire you because of it.

Few things wrong here, straight from the mouth of a Commerce graduate.

Earning nothing? Most people work jobs at Uni, it sounds like most pay about double what most apprenticeships pay. I worked at a Woolies Petrol making $18p/h ish.

On top of that we've got 4 months of holiday between semesters, which the savvy people spend working full time. A lot of people also get professional vacation work, usually payin about $28 an hour. The bankers get about $1500 p/w. I personally spent a lot of time in warehouses, but I made a good few thousand every Uni holidays.

That bit of paper is nothing to be scoffed at. Graduate starting salaries start at about the $45k mark, I've got friends who are making over $100k first year out of Uni. Most major companies pay over $50k and then put you in an accelerated program where you progress fast and earn a crap load.

A Uni degree is certainly not a ticket to success, nor does it mean everyone with one is awesome but it's not something that should be scorned either. Not sure I'd say the same about a Bachelor of Arts, but the public sector does reward them pretty well for what they have.

A chick with a degree in Fine Arts my aunt works with makes over $80k pa with only 3 years on the job. Gotta love government jobs. Not bad for a piece of paper though.

 

[Jo3_Blo]

And also, what's with saying uni-students should be paid 10 bucks an hour to study.......wtf?????

The learning is for their own benefit, if they need to be paid for it (and that system would be flaunted anyhow) then they shouldn't be there.

I think that's a ridiculous proposition TBH.

 

[Jo3_Blo]

There is some damn good money to be made in plastering

Yeah that's true. I'm not sure about Fibrous, but I know there is def good money in Solid.

 

[Shounak]

And also, what's with saying uni-students should be paid 10 bucks an hour to study.......wtf?????

The learning is for their own benefit, if they need to be paid for it (and that system would be flaunted anyhow) then they shouldn't be there.

I think that's a ridiculous proposition TBH.

We've got apprenticeship like situations.

A certain degree at Monash has the employer pay all fees, books etc (effectively over $10k a year, which is about $5 an hour) and then gives the student full time work during all vacation breaks and guarantee's a job at the end of it.

The learning is for the benefit of both. That's also why most post grad courses in business are employer funded.

Please don't tell me that most people doing a Harvard MBA shouldn't be there.

Good proposition that's already very much in play.