APPRENTICE VS FULLY QUALIFIED TRADIE

You’re ready to hire your next tradesperson but you’re not sure WHO you want to hire.

Do you hire an apprentice? Typically, they’re young and fresh and eager to please.

Or do you hire a fully qualified tradie? Typically, they’re more experienced and can work independently.

But which option suits YOUR business best? Read on to check out our pros and cons list of each.

Apprentices

They’re eager to learn

Majority of the time, hiring an apprentice is the same as adopting a new puppy who is eager to learn new tricks.

They’re a fresh slate, they haven’t come into your care with old habits that are hard to break, that don’t suit your way of working. You can train them how YOU want to train them.

BUT the training does take a lot of work, time, and patience (not to mention the time you will take enrolling them and speaking to the apprenticeship board). So, this is something you need to be prepared to undertake, and have the time to undertake, before hiring an apprentice.

Your investment could potentially lead to loyalty

The time you give up to train and mentor your apprentice, could potentially result in their loyalty to the business.

On average, Dr.DRiP’s apprentices stayed with the business for five years; the longest one stuck around for eleven!

Unfortunately, this might not always be the case, with some believing “the grass is greener on the other side” and moving on quicker than you might’ve liked.

You can attempt to negate this with a great culture, great benefits, and above award wages.

Don’t have massive upfront costs to the business

In fact, there are great apprenticeship incentives for employers.

As of July of 2022, employers who fall into a certain category can get a wage subsidy of around 10% of wages for first and second year apprentices up to $1500 a quarter, and 5% of wages for third year apprentices up to $750 a quarter.

Alternatively if you don’t fall into the first category, you’ll get paid $3500 in two equal six-monthly installments for full-time apprentices.

It’s best to perform some quick research to understand which category you fall into, before hiring.

Qualified Tradesperson

You can make profit on them immediately

Unlike an apprentice who might not have the skills to work alone, a qualified tradie can immediately work independently. Meaning they can instantly lighten your load and make you profit.

This however does come with a price tag. Gun tradespeople can cost top dollar to attract and retain, so keep this in mind when you look at your pricing and how much profit they’re actually making you on each job.

Most have developed communication skills

Because they’re a little older, and have previous work and life experience, qualified tradespersons tend to have better communication skills.

This means they’re better equipped to walk into a customer’s house and confidently take them through your sales process, and they can contribute to your team culture in a positive way.

On the other hand, the younger generation (you can negate this by hiring a mature aged apprentice) these days have their eyes glued to their phones, and rarely communicate face-to-face.

They require minimal training

Because they have the technical skills already, (majority of the time) all you need to do is train them on your processes (admin, invoicing, etc.) and off they go.

This removes the time investment from you and is a great option for those that are time poor and just need to offload their work instantly.

Keep in mind that not all tradies are willing to learn and adopt new processes, some can be stubborn and stuck in their ways!

Knowing all this, take a step back, and think about what will suit you and your business. Consider your current business structure, where you want to go in the future, your cashflow, and how much time you as the business owner have BEFORE jumping the gun and making a decision.