Federal Election 2025: Coalition’s $12k incentive to boost tradie apprentices, trainees

The Coalition has announced a bold plan to reverse the rapid decline of apprentices and trainees, with analysis showing there are 90,000 fewer positions now compared to three years ago.

There are 90,000 fewer apprentices and trainees now than three years ago as the Coalition vows to reverse the decline under Labor with its plan to pay businesses to hire more young Australians.

The building industry has warned Australia needs 500,000 new tradies over the next five years to have any hope of addressing the housing crisis.

There are now about 333,700 apprentices and trainees down from almost 428,000 in 2022 when businesses were paid to hire and train young Australians during the pandemic, according to new analysis of National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) data.

Labor has argued the Covid-era peak was unfairly inflated by wasteful wage subsidies, but the Coalition has set a target to lift the training pipeline significantly to 400,000 using a similar scheme.

The Coalition has pledged to pay small and medium employers up to $12,000 for taking on new apprentices in critical trades supporting up to 40,000 tradies and trainees a year at a cost of $500 million over four years.

The building industry has warned Australia needs 500,000 new tradies over the next five years to address the housing crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

But Labor has questioned the price tag produced by the Parliamentary Budget Office for the Coalition, arguing an uncapped subsidy program would actually cost $2.95 billion when factoring in the normal annual rate of 58,000 new apprentices on top of the extra the Coalition hoped to attract.

Analysis of NCVER data has found since June 2022 the number of people in construction trades has declined to 30 per cent to 21,480 as of September last year.

In the last 12 months alone the number of construction tradies starting out has dropped by about 2000 people.

Masterbuilders chief economist Shane Garrett said the main reason for the decline in apprentices was the “drying up” of Covid incentives, though other factors included cost of living and a cultural shift away from young people wanting to do a trade.

“Over the next five years, our industry will need over 500,000 new entrants to replace those retiring and to expand our workforce by enough to meet future housing and infrastructure needs,” he said.

Paul Green with apprentice Luke Fell. They were part of the Greens’ Productivity Bootcamp program. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr Garrett said the Coalition’s $12,000 subsidy would make it less expensive for eligible employers to take on apprentices.

“This will mean … more apprenticeships get offered,” he said.

Both the Coalition and Labor plan to directly pay apprentices and trainees up to $10,000 for completing an in-demand trade, with a focus on construction and housing-related skills.

Labor has also pledged $1.5bn to make fee-free TAFE permanent.

Deputy opposition leader and skills spokeswoman Sussan Ley said skilling Australians would be a “top priority” for an elected Coalition government, arguing Labor was simply “doubling down” on failed policies.

Deputy opposition leader and skills spokeswoman Sussan Ley. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Under Labor the number of apprentices and trainees has dropped in 99.3 per cent of electorates,” she said.

“This is a comprehensive failure on any measure.”

Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles said construction apprentice numbers were 50,000 higher under Labor than the Liberals pre-pandemic in 2019.

Mr Giles called the Coalition’s business incentive scheme a “reheat” of its Covid policy that resulted in the Liberals paying “millions of dollars to businesses, for apprenticeship and trainee training which simply never happened”.

Tammy Marsh 16, is in the middle of an eight-week course designed to inspire future tradies, called Productivity Bootcamp.

She said while the work was tough it was good to be out of the classroom.

“It’s pretty exciting because you’re learning something different everyday … I was pretty sore the first few days,” she said.

Originally published as Federal Election 2025: Coalition’s $12k incentive to boost tradie apprentices, trainees