Research at a glance

The outcomes from apprenticeships, traineeships and new apprenticeships

immediate employment outcomes and starting salaries

The employment retention outcomes after completion of an apprenticeship, traineeship or new apprenticeship are excellent. For instance, over 90% of apprentices had unsubsidised employment three months after completion of their contract of training. Most were retained with the employer with whom they did their apprenticeship, although some would have found a new job.The corresponding employment outcome from traineeships was 93%. Taking apprenticeships and traineeships together, the employment retention outcome in unsubsidised employment three months after completion of a new apprenticeship is 93% overall (table 9).

The starting salaries of graduates from different types of post-secondary education and training exceeded $460 per week in all cases as shown in table 10. University graduates in their first full-time job have the highest starting salaries at $635 per week.This is because university graduates tend to enter professional jobs which are the highest paying jobs in the labour market.

Apprentices and trainees take up jobs across the labour market.Their starting salaries in their first full-time job average $473 per week, slightly higher than for other TAFE graduates.

long-term employment and earnings prospects of apprentices

We can gauge the long-term employment and earning prospects of apprentices by looking at what happens to people who have completed an apprenticeship at some time in the past. This can be done by looking at the employment and earning levels for people who have a skilled vocational qualification. Most of these were gained through an apprenticeship.

The long-term prospects of those having completed a traineeship cannot be gauged in the same way. Although people who have gained a vocational qualification through a traineeship are in the category of people with a basic vocational qualification, most of the people in that category gained their qualification in other ways such as through a TAFE course. Hence the long-term outcomes of traineeships cannot be ascertained in this way, and there are no other data currently available to track the long-term outcomes of traineeships.

Looking at the fortunes of those already in the workforce who have an apprenticeship qualification or another skilled vocational qualification, we can see that the long-term employment prospects of apprentices are very good.

Those with the best employment prospects in the Australian labour market are those who have a university higher degree (doctorate or masters degree) or post-graduate diploma (87% are employed) followed by those with a bachelor degree (85%). Only marginally lower are those with an apprenticeship or equivalent qualification who have an 83% chance of being employed in the long run (table 11).

People with an apprenticeship and other skilled vocational qualifications have a much higher probability of having a job than do people with other post-school qualifications. For instance, those with a basic vocational qualification, (broadly equivalent to AQF certificates I and II) enjoy only a 75% chance of having a job. People with diploma or associate diploma qualifications (broadly equivalent to an AQF diploma or advanced diploma) have a 78% probability of employment. Those who hold a diploma may have gained it through a university (undergraduate diploma) or through a TAFE or other vocational education and training provider (table 11).

The probability of employment is only 63.6% for those people who have no post-school qualifications (table 11).

Conversely, those who have university degrees or apprenticeship/skilled vocational qualifications experience the lowest levels of unemployment of any group in the community (table 11).

Apprenticeships are an excellent pathway to full-time employment or self-employment. Almost 90% of employed persons who have an apprenticeship or other skilled vocational qualification have a full-time job. Over 20% of those with an apprenticeship or other skilled vocational qualification are self-employed. People with an apprenticeship or another skilled vocational qualification have by far the highest rates of full-time employment and self-employment in the Australian workforce, university graduates included (table 11).

Estimates of average annual full-time earnings for different groups show that people with an apprenticeship or other skilled vocational qualification have an average earning if employed full-time of around $43 500 (table 11).This represents a premium of around 15% over the average earnings of those with no post-school qualifications.

University graduates and holders of associate diplomas enjoy higher average earnings than those with apprenticeship or other skilled vocational qualifications.Those with basic vocational qualifications earn an average of $36 500 per year (table 11).

Apprentices have employment prospects and earnings outcomes that, although not as good as those for university graduates, clearly outrank the outcomes gained by those with basic vocational qualifications or no qualifications in the Australian labour market. Apprenticeships are the best pathway of all to full-time employment or self-employment.

Although we cannot isolate traineeship outcomes from those of all other basic vocational qualification holders, the information here suggests that qualifications from shorter traineeships (at Certificate I and II level) lead to better employment prospects (i.e. 10 percentage points higher). However, the incomes of this group are similar to those without post-school qualifications.

From this we can expect new apprenticeships at the Certificate III or higher level to produce similar outcomes to those seen to date with apprenticeships. New apprenticeships at the Certificate I or II levels can be expected to produce outcomes around the levels seen for basic vocational qualifications holders until now.

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