The nature of apprenticeships

Internationally, apprenticeships involve learning about, and how to perform, an occupation, usually within a specified type of employment contract. They sit at the intersection of work and training, generally including learning on and off the job, usually with the involvement of an external training provider. While apprenticeships exist in many countries, international comparisons are notoriously difficult (Markowitsch and Wittig 2020, Valiente et al Reference Valiente, Maitra, Gonon and Pilz2025), with several comparative projects showing wide differences (e.g. Smith and Brennan Kemmis Reference Smith and Brennan Kemmis2013; Fazio et al Reference Fazio, Fernández-Coto and Ripani2016). For example, in Australia, apprenticeships are usually undertaken post-school rather than by senior secondary students as in many European countries; again, unlike many countries, they are available to people of any age. The international comparison undertaken by Smith and Brennan Kemmis (Reference Smith and Brennan Kemmis2013) for the International Labour Organization (ILO) tabulates many such variables, including the availability of apprenticeship in various occupational areas, across 11 countries. In 2017, further work was undertaken by the ILO, surveying each of the tripartite partners in the 20 large economies of the G20, with the analysis carried out by Smith et al (Reference Smith, Tuck and Chatani2018). The survey was based on the ten Actions for Quality apprenticeships agreed by the G20 at a meeting of the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers and subsequently endorsed at the 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit (Smith et al Reference Smith, Tuck and Chatani2018, xi) and provides further points of comparison.

Apprenticeship systems often display skewed gender participation; Australia resembles other countries where systems have historically been confined to relatively small numbers of occupations primarily undertaken by men (e.g. Smith and Brennan Kemmis Reference Smith and Brennan Kemmis2013), except for hairdressing, where females predominate. Some countries, such as the US and Canada, are still overwhelmingly male-dominated. In countries where apprenticeship is normally part of senior secondary schooling, the genders are more balanced. There are international agreements on education and work which should guide national policies on apprenticeships. The G20’s agreed Actions, referred to earlier, included Action 3 ‘promoting apprenticeship programmes in a broad range of occupations and sectors’ and Action 7 ‘Improving access to quality apprenticeship for disadvantaged groups’. Interestingly, women were not specifically mentioned in the Actions, but governments reported initiatives for women as part of their Action 7 responses on ‘disadvantaged groups’ (Smith et al Reference Smith, Tuck and Chatani2018, xii-xiii). Two of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also relevant: SDG 4: ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ and SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.Footnote ³

Apprenticeship systems usually display high-level participation by governments, trade employers, and trade unions (Bridgford Reference Bridgford2017) in the tripartite formulation of apprenticeship policy (International Labour Organization (ILO) 2017). In Australia, the trade unions, and particularly those in the male-dominated areas, have been particularly influential in VET policy since the 1940s (Gospel Reference Gospel1994). Apprenticeship systems are essentially conservative – i.e. slow and/or reluctant to change – (Smith Reference Smith2019a) or, put more bluntly, ‘ossified’ (PhillipsKPA 2018, 22). It is difficult to reach agreement among the stakeholders for change, as interests may vary so much and can be deeply entrenched. As Smith (Reference Smith2019a) points out, apprenticeships’ conservative nature partly rests in their embeddedness into a wide range of economic and social structures. This is a strength and an indicator of resilience on the one hand, and prevents undesirable ‘hi-jacking’, but on the other hand, can be problematic where apprenticeships need to evolve quickly to meet changes in economy and society, as Smith (Reference Smith2019a) points out.

The Australian apprenticeships system

The Australian system includes ‘traditional trade’ apprenticeships and newer traineeships, which are described further below. Australian apprentices and trainees achieve formal qualifications from the vocational education and training (VET) system, normally from a competency-based Training Package. Training Packages are based around industry and/or occupational areas, and are developed by government-funded skills councils (Smith Reference Smith, Tierney, Rizvi, Ercikan and Smith2023). Most apprenticeship qualifications are at Certificate III level on the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), with a small number at higher qualification levels, including a few at degree level (AQF level 7). Higher or degree apprenticeships are more common in many other countries (Smith et al Reference Smith, Tuck and Chatani2018) but are still in their infancy in Australia. Traditional trade apprenticeships generally last for three or four years, and traineeships for one to two years, more often one year.

Australian apprentices and trainees are always formally employed, usually but not always full-time, and receive wages, unlike in some other countries where apprentices receive only stipends (Smith and Brennan Kemmis Reference Smith and Brennan Kemmis2013). Most who complete their term continue in employment with the same employer, but completion rates are quite low, consistently a little over 50% (e.g. National Centre for Vocational Education Research [NCVER] 2024); this is often seen as a policy problem. State and Territory governments fund, or to be more exact, ‘subsidise’,Footnote ⁴ the formal training component of apprenticeships, and are also responsible for ‘declaring’ occupations as apprenticeships; some occupations are ‘declared’ only in some States. The Commonwealth government provides some financial incentives for employers and apprentices, generally minor; a $1500 AUD employer incentive was a standard rate for many years. Rates have varied over time (Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024). There is particular funding to encourage participation by equity groups.

In the mid-1980s, shorter ‘traineeships’ were introduced in a wide range of industry areas previously without apprenticeships (Smith Reference Smith2021). They are typically one to two years in duration compared with the three or four years for traditional ‘trade’ apprenticeships. At around that time, government funding for apprenticeship and traineeship training was made available to private training providers as well as Technical and Further Education (TAFE), the public provider. This initiative was known initially as ‘user choice’ (Smith and Keating Reference Smith and Keating2003) since companies could now choose where to send their apprentices or trainees, rather than being obliged to use the nearest public training provider. Evident abuse by some training providers and apprentice contracting agencies also became apparent. These early abuses unfortunately tainted the concept of traineeships in Australia, providing an easy target for commentators who wished to confine apprenticeships to trade occupations (e.g. Schofield Reference Schofield1999, as discussed by Smith Reference Smith2008a and Reference Smith2022). Subsequent research, however, has showed many instances of good traineeship practice (e.g. Smith et al Reference Smith, Comyn, Brennan Kemmis and Smith2009; Smith Reference Smith2015a; the satisfaction rates of trainees with their training both on-the-job (88.6%) and off-the job (86.4%) were high (NCVER 2024); those in traineeships were slightly more satisfied with their on-the-job training than trade apprentices, and slightly less satisfied with the off-the-job training. Smith et al (Reference Smith, Callan, Robinson, Smith and Snell2024) found, in the retail and hospitality industries, that traineeships were often a route into well-paid management jobs at young ages.

The Australian apprenticeships system expanded, steadily and later rapidly, as a result of the introduction of traineeships. In the early 21^st century, there were two spikes, in the early 2000s and the early 2010s, for particular reasons. Apprentice participation at its peak reached just over 4% of the employed population in 2011, with over 400,000 people in training, but fell rapidly after that due to funding cuts (Smith Reference Smith2021, 350), which is discussed later in this paper.

Government data, collected by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, do not differentiate between apprenticeships and traineeships, instead using the proxy ‘trade and ‘non-trade’. Analysis of figures presented by Smith (Reference Smith2021, 351) shows that the proportion in ‘non-trade’ apprenticeships (i.e. traineeships) increased from zero in 1985 – as might be expected since that was the year of the Kirby report (Kirby Reference Kirby1985), which recommended traineeships’ institution, to 10.8% in 1993, and more rapidly after that, so that ‘non-trade’ numbers actually exceeded ‘trade’ numbers from the years 2002 until 2011. By 2019, non-trade apprenticeships (i.e. traineeships), mainly, but not only, in feminised or non-gender-weighted occupations, constituted only 34.9% of total apprenticeships (Smith Reference Smith2021).

Apprenticeship systems often incorporate intermediary bodies to facilitate and expand the operation of apprenticeship systems (Smith Reference Smith2019b). Australia has two types. Group Training Organisations (GTOs), in place since the 1980s, act as an apprentice’s formal employer, placing the apprentice with a host employer (Smith Reference Smith2019b). They currently employ 6.6 % of apprentices, with higher proportions in traditional trades, for example, 12.0 % of electrical apprentices (Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024, 111, 296). Apprentice Connect Providers manage apprentices’ contracting arrangements and government reporting; these bodies have had different names over the decades. GTOs are generally non-profit, but the apprentice contracting system is privatised; a small number of major companies hold national contracts (Smith Reference Smith2019b) and are paid per sign-up.

Gender in VET and apprenticeships

VET has always been male-focused; Choy and Edwards-Groves (Reference Choy and Edwards-Groves2024) recount Australian VET’s original focus on male work, with women being confined to ‘domestic science’ and secretarial schools. More recently, gender discussions of women in VET have tended to focus on the lack of penetration by women of male areas (Phan Reference Phan2001; Butler and Ferrier Reference Butler and Ferrier2006). Women in Australian VET (which includes institutional-based VET as well as apprenticeships) are currently concentrated in health care, community services, and early childhood occupations, all growing sectors. They form almost half (46.6%) of VET students and have higher completion rates in VET than men, as a government report (DEWR 2023) states. This seemingly positive result is depicted, however, as problematic (DEWR 2023, 10) because of the occupational areas in which women study, with the report expressing a preference to move women into trades. Niemeyer and Colley (Reference Niemeyer and Colley2015) view such strategies to encourage women to enter male-dominated areas of VET may be construed as blaming women for their occupational choices.

It is thus not surprising that apprenticeships in feminised industries have lower status than those in masculinised industries, precisely because the apprenticeship system grew around the dominance of men. A dominant strand of literature buttresses the relative positions of men’s and women’s work in the apprenticeship system. Fortwengel et al (Reference Fortwengel, Gospel and Toner2019, 21), for example, refer dismissively to traineeships in the service industry as ‘lesser skilled’, while Buchanan (Reference Buchanan2015) claims that traineeships are ‘characterised’ by a lack of off-the-job training. Some writers on the UK system, such as Keep and James (2010), mount similar arguments. Their arguments often attack employers, as does Cully (Reference Cully2008), for example, in asserting that employers’ use of traineeships was an attempt to ‘capture economic rents’ through the (modest) employer incentives and through the ability to pay lower wages while training. He does not apply this criticism to employers of apprentices in masculinised occupations. Cully (Reference Cully2008: 272) also claims that because trainee wages do not rise appreciably on completion, unlike trade apprentices’ wage rise on completion, ‘by inference’ there is no rise in productivity. The phrase ‘by inference’ ignores the historical reasons why jobs generally undertaken by men are paid more than those generally undertaken by women. And so, undertaking a traineeship in a female-dominated occupation is to invite disparagement, although there is no reference to gender, only to occupations, in critiques.

A more overt theme in the apprenticeship literature, as noted earlier, is the problem of low participation of women in male-dominated trades. Kirby (Reference Kirby1985) mentions a figure of around 10%, and this figure persists to the current day, as will be shown later. While this imbalance may be attributed to gender stereotyping and lack of enlightened career guidance, women are also deterred by fears of harassment or intimidation during training or work (Struthers and Strachan Reference Struthers and Strachan2019), and apprenticeship structures do not provide support to women to address these matters (McMahon Reference McMahon, Smith, Zhao and Frost-Camilleri2025). The construction industry in Australia is especially prone to problems during apprenticeships, with a culture among workers of risk-taking and disregard for safety (Loosemore and Malouf Reference Loosemore and Malouf2019), and complicated further by the preponderance of sub-contracting (Pook Reference Pook2024) and an adversarial industrial relations culture (Arnold and Kelly Reference Arnold and Kelly2024). Moreover, as McMahon (2015, 91) points out, since it is overwhelmingly males in male-dominated organisations who recruit new apprentices in trade occupations, ‘historical patterns of exclusion’ persist.

In Australia, females have lower completion rates than males in Australia in male-dominated apprenticeships (Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024, 212). A large-scale US study found the same (Srikanth et al Reference Srikanth, Baker, Meischke, Seixas and Zuidema2024); and in Germany, Beckmann (Reference Beckmann2023) found, more generally, that ‘gender-atypical’ apprentices (i.e. males in ‘female’ jobs and females in ‘male’ jobs) were more likely to withdraw. Apprentice intermediary organisations may assist; Ross and Paul (Reference Ross and Paul2024, 212) state, using government data, that being employed by a GTO, while having a positive effect on completion rates for both genders, has a greater effect for females than males in trade apprenticeships.

1: Analysis of gender in major Australian apprenticeship reports issued by the federal government

Seven major national apprenticeship reports, four listed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in its ‘landmark documents’ section,Footnote ⁶ which covers reports to 2010, with the addition of three later reports, were analysed for the gender composition of the committees’ panels, or the individuals who authored the reports, and the way in which gender issues were addressed (Table 1). Key gender propositions of the reports are bolded in the Table.

Table 1.

Gender analysis of government apprenticeship reports

* Released 2025.

Source: Author.

In the discussion, it should be borne in mind that government documents may or may not be viewed favourably by governments or translated directly into policy. But even if they are not, they provide useful insights into the views held by dominant stakeholders and/or officials at the time. Moreover, they remain on the public record and could be utilised in the future.

The 1954 report (Commonwealth-State Committee of Inquiry into Apprenticeship 1954), as might be expected from its date, excluded women completely. The Kirby report (Reference Kirby1985), in contrast, addressed the issue of women’s marginalisation as a priority, stating that ‘the trades and the apprenticeship system have been, and still are, a male domain’ (125). It noted that at that time, 33% of male school leavers but only 4% of female school leavers were apprentices. As the author put it, ‘Young women are disadvantaged by the male stereotyped nature of trade training and the types of occupations it serves’ (Kirby Reference Kirby1985, 124). To address this imbalance, it therefore proposed the system of traineeships, initially aimed at school-leavers, and in industries where apprenticeships did not exist. They were required to have a minimum length of one year, to include off-the-job training, and to have ‘equal access to males and females’ (Kirby Reference Kirby1985, 120). These traineeships were subsequently introduced. The 1991 report also explicitly encouraged expansion of contracted training into feminised occupations, as well as encouraging women into masculinised occupations. Since then, for over two decades, reports have either ignored gender issues (see e.g. Bob Marshman and Associates 1996; Laundy et al Reference Laundy, Lindgren, McDougall, Diamond, Lambert, Luciani and De Souza2016) or have proposed reduced funding for feminised occupations (McDowell et al Reference McDowell, Oliver, Persson, Fairbrother, Wetzlar, Buchanan and Shipstone2011, Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024). The latter two reports are discussed below and also in more detail later in the paper, as they are central to the paper’s argument about women’s disadvantage in the apprenticeship system.

The 2011 Expert Panel report ‘Apprenticeships for the 21^st Century’ (McDowell et al Reference McDowell, Oliver, Persson, Fairbrother, Wetzlar, Buchanan and Shipstone2011) became notorious for advocating the removal of financial support for traineeships. Smith (Reference Smith2015b) has explained how that earlier report was not only enacted in relation to Commonwealth government support but was also referenced by some jurisdictions in order to justify cuts to training subsidies. At one stage, the funding for training for some feminised occupations in the State of Victoria was set at $1.50 per hour per trainee compared with over $10.00 for masculinised occupations (Smith Reference Smith2015b). This meant that some public and private training providers permanently ceased provision of training for those areas (Guthrie et al Reference Guthrie, Smith, Burt and Every2014). The 2024 report (Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024) contains a similar proposal to defund most traineeships, while remaining equivocal on child care and aged care workers.

Both of these reports were partly authored by people from masculinised trade union backgrounds, with the 2024 (Ross and Paul Reference Ross and Paul2024) lead author also having chaired the Fair Work Commission, the national employment relations tribunal, for ten years. The industry representatives on the ‘Expert Panel’ report (McDowell et al Reference McDowell, Oliver, Persson, Fairbrother, Wetzlar, Buchanan and Shipstone2011), including one of the two women on the panel, were all from masculinised industries such as construction, aerospace, and mining. As will be discussed further, the Ross and Paul (Reference Ross and Paul2024) report relied heavily on anti-traineeship literature, such as a report by Cully (Reference Cully2008) produced for the Fair Work Commission.

2. Statistics on participation by gender

Figure 1 presents commencement data for the years 1995–2019; the dates were selected to show developments over the quarter of a century prior to the disruption of the apprenticeship system by the COVID pandemic.

Figure 1.

Apprentice/trainee contracts commencements 1995–2019 (to 30 June annually) by gender.

Source: Derived from NCVER’s National Centre for Vocational Education Research) ‘Apprentices and Trainees’ data collection.

Figure 1 shows that male commencements in the apprenticeship system exceeded female commencements for the whole 25-year period, with a low female base of 24.5% (14,700 out of 60,000) in 1995. Figure 1 shows the gap narrowing at times when total apprentice numbers were higher, with women forming 43.9% (165,600 out of 376,900) of commencements in 2012, for example, and even higher in 2009 when there was an anomalous sharp fall in male commencements, perhaps due to the Global Financial Crisis. The gender gap widened again, with a rapid fall after 2012, and female commencement settled to around 35% of commencements by the end of the decade. The rapid fall in the mid-2010s can be attributed to the events set in chain by the 2011 McDowell et al ‘Expert Panel’ report, discussed in the previous section.

Table 2 below brings the ‘commencing’ data shown in Figure 1 to the current day.

Table 2.

Commencing apprentices and trainees in Australia by gender 2020–2024

Source: NCVER 2024, Apprentices and trainees 2024 – June quarter Data Builder, Contract status, Gender by 12-month series. Percentages added by author.

Table 2 shows a COVID-related drop in total commencements from 156,200 in the year 2018-2019 to 134,640 in 2019–2020. This would be expected, since recruitment effectively stopped in March 2020. However, the numbers recovered due to generous wage subsidies for apprenticeships, which are discussed in detail later in the paper. These COVID subsidies (see Smith Reference Smith2024) affected total numbers over this period, accounting for the peak in total commencement in 2021 and 2022. In line with other peaks discussed above, women’s relative participation increased during the peak COVID subsidy years. However, the percentage changes were only minor compared with earlier peaks, perhaps because masculinised trade commencements peaked in 2022,Footnote ⁷ due to a heavy investment in infrastructure projects during the COVID period (Smith Reference Smith2024). Women reached 39.7% of commencements in 2022, not far from the 2012 peak of 43.9%, but the figures dropped after that. In effect, Table 2 shows the continuation of the late 2010s trend of women forming about a third of total enrolment.

As well as the commencement numbers shown in Figure 1 and Table 2, ‘In-training’ numbers are also collected. The gender gap is higher for these, as trade apprenticeships last for three or four years, meaning that men generally remain in the system for much longer than women and are counted each year they are enrolled. Ross and Paul (Reference Ross and Paul2024, 31) state that, for December 2023, only 28.0% of apprentices in training were women. In contrast, women constitute 47.9% of all employed people (2022 figures) (Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2022).

Further analysis was carried out by occupational area, using designated apprenticeship ‘occupational area’ groupings. The year 2023–2024 was selected for the analysis, as by this time, apprenticeship numbers had reverted to a pre-COVID norm. The numbers by gender in the top 17 occupational apprentice areas by number of commencements were allocated to four categories: those overwhelmingly male or female dominated (85% plus), and those gender segregated to a lesser extent (Table 3). These 17 occupational areas each had 2,000 or more apprentice/trainee commencements; (Information & communications technology was added, with 1,945). In Table 3, the five largest occupational areas – those with over 10,000+ commencements – are indicated by *. ‘Metal and engineering’, with 9,735 commencements, is also starred, because its total was so close to 10,000, with a natural break in the data below that.

Table 3.

Occupational analysis of commencements by gender, Australia, 2023–2024 year (occupations with over 2000 commencements)

* refers to 10,000 or near commencements

Source: Author, using https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/data/databuilder#

All but one of the heavily apprenticed occupations (10,000+ commencements) were found to be in Quadrant 1 – ‘overwhelmingly male’. The three ‘overwhelmingly female’ apprentice areas had lower numbers. The only female-dominated area with 10,000 commencements (Business studies, Quadrant 4) was only two-thirds female. Only two of the 17 most-apprenticed occupational areas (Tourism, travel, and hospitality and property services) had more or less equal gender splits, both in Quadrant 4. Notably, the occupational areas with more men were more gender-segregated than those with more women.

3. Comparison of funding by occupational area

Funding: Table 4 compares the funding (‘subsidy’) allocated for training of apprenticesFootnote ⁸ , by the State of Victoria, to typical occupations in 12 of these occupational areas. State government funding lists are provided by qualification, rather than by ‘occupational area’; therefore, a ‘typical’ and heavily used qualification had to be selected for each area, which was done by inspection of the relevant Training Package’s qualifications list. Certificate III level qualifications were selected in most cases, because a Certificate III is regarded as a full occupational qualification compared with lower levelsFootnote ⁹ ; it is the standard for masculinised trade apprenticeships. Qualification regimes in some other occupations meant that qualifications at other levels needed to be used, for example, at Diploma level in beauty therapy.

Table 4.

Funding rates per hour in AUD for apprentice/trainee programmes, Victoria, 2024, most common apprenticeship/traineeship qualification in each occupational area

Source: Data from Victorian government’s 2024 Funded Program List.

Notes: (i) This list, which in prior years was formerly publicly available, is now only available to those who can log into the ‘Skills Victoria Training System, see https://www.vic.gov.au/access-skills-victoria-training-system. A copy was provided by a TAFE Institute for use in this paper. (ii) Hairdressing was the only apprenticeship area in the ‘overwhelmingly female’ category. All others were deemed traineeships.

Five of the 17 occupational areas included in Table 3 contained such diverse qualifications that it was impossible to select a ‘typical’ qualification for occupational area. The five omitted from Table 4 were the ICT category from Table 3’s Quadrant 1, and the two lowest-enrolment occupational areas from each of Quadrants 3 and 4.

Table 4 shows clearly that male-dominated occupations received much higher rates of funding than female-dominated occupations. Even within male-dominated occupations, funding was generally, but not always, higher the more the occupation was dominated by males. The differences cannot be fully accounted for by cost of delivery. Moreover, apprenticeships are funded for longer periods of time – normally three times that for traineeships – so that the differences between the total funding provided by the State for masculinised and feminised occupations are therefore much higher than the Table implies.

4. Apprenticeship-related policy reactions to economic change in the 2020s

In the past five years, three significant changes have affected the economy and the demand for labour in masculinised industries: post-COVID labour shortages, sustainability, and ‘green skills’.

The COVID pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 severely affected all industries worldwide. Fears of mass youth unemployment led, in many countries, to mass subsidies for apprenticeship, as described earlier, among other job generation and retention strategies. However, workforce shortages in many industries began worldwide as economies recovered quickly from the initial COVID shocks (Birch and Preston Reference Birch and Preston2022). Thus, by December 2024, the Australian unemployment rate was only 4%Footnote ¹⁰ compared with 6% ten years earlier. The Occupational Shortage List (replacing a previous Skills Priority List) prepared by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), a government agency, found that 33% of occupations were in shortage in 2024. Of these, the highest grouping was ‘technicians and trades workers’. Six of the top twenty occupations in shortage are serviced only, or primarily, by apprenticeships, and four may be, but need not be, apprenticeships/traineeships. Fourteen of the top 20 labour shortage occupations were reported to be highly gender-skewed (i.e. 80.0% plus male or female), leading JSA to conclude that gender-skewed workforces ‘may inadvertently constrain the labour supply’ (JSA 2024b,16)

Sustainability is now vital in skill development systems (e.g. Pavlova Reference Pavlova2019), with a specific focus on ameliorating climate change via ‘clean energy’. Much like Industry 4.0 jobs (Gessler Reference Gessler2024), ‘green skills’ can be divided into those creating the architecture (for example, wind farm technicians) and those utilising new systems. Warhurst et al (Reference Warhurst, Harris, Cardenas Rubio and Anderson2025) identified three categories of ‘green’ jobs: ‘pure green’ jobs; those which are ‘greening’ – i.e. requiring new skills and knowledge; and existing jobs that are more in demand due to the imperative of net zero initiatives. The authors found that, in Scotland, women were under-represented in green jobs, except for the second category (Warhurst et al Reference Warhurst, Harris, Cardenas Rubio and Anderson2025). In Germany, Aichinger et al (Reference Aichinger, Wehden, Ludwig and Creutzig2025) have found that young women find what the authors call ‘climate crafts’ unattractive.