Can a Self-Employed Electrician Hire an Apprentice in Australia?
The answer is yes! However, there are some things you need to know before taking on an apprentice.
This blog post will outline what you need to do to hire an apprentice as a self-employed electrician in Australia.
What You Need to Know About Hiring an Apprentice
1. You must provide a suitable range of work, facilities, and supervision, guaranteeing workplace health and safety compliance.
2. A Recognised Training Organisation (RTO), like a TAFE or private college, will investigate your workplace to ensure that you can meet the training needs of an apprentice. You'll need to find one in our local area that can deliver the qualification you're hiring for.
3. You have training obligations after signing the training contract, such as negotiating your apprentice's training plan, allowing them to go off-site for study and checking their training record at least every three months.
4. You'll have typical obligations like paying your apprentice salary based on their award wage rate and organising benefits on their behalf, like superannuation and holiday leave, as any employer must.
5. You may be eligible for financial incentives from the government, depending on the type of apprentice you take on.
6. Once you've decided to hire an apprentice, the next step is finding the right candidate. We recommend a pre-employment medical check, drug and alcohol check and police check.
7. To find the right apprentice for your business, consider running an ad on a job directory site online, contacting your local TAFE or technical college, or reaching out to family and friends.
8. Once you've found a few candidates you like, set up interviews and ask each candidate questions about their qualifications, experience, motivation for wanting to become an electrician, and why they want to work for your business in particular.
9. After conducting interviews, choose the candidate you think would be the best fit for your business and extend them a formal offer of employment.
10. Congratulations! You're now on your way to having a successful apprentice electrician working for your business.
The Fast-track to Hire an Electrical Apprentice
If this sounds like a lot of work, then you'd be right. An electrical apprentice is an asset, but the initial investment in onboarding a quality apprentice is significant, especially as a sole trader or small business owner. You want to ensure you find an apprentice that will stick around and won't up and quit after just a few weeks.
Luckily there's a better, easier way. Hire Onsite, powered by MIGAS, delivers fast, effective recruitment and apprentice workforce management solutions Australia-wide.
Try Hire Onsite to Make Onboarding Easy
We can find an apprentice for you, complete one-off aptitude testing and pre-employment screening, organise the training contract, and basically prepare the way for your apprentice to start from day one with minimal effort from you.
If you'd like a quote for this service, contact us and mention Hire Onsite in your message.
We draw on 35 years of expertise in apprenticeship recruitment, placement and training and know just what skills, experience and aptitude to look for in an apprentice or trainee for your business.
Under our Hire Onsite division, MIGAS offers:
- Recruitment and placement of apprentices and trainees
- External management of your directly employed apprentice/trainee workforce
- A range of skills and aptitude testing techniques from facilitated candidates assessment centres to one-off aptitude testing and pre-employment screening
- Full-scale recruitment and community engagement programs for large apprentice intakes in multiple locations with specialisation in the mining, gas and energy sectors
- Diversity and inclusion recruitment
Benefits of Employing an Electrical Apprentice
1. You Can Train Them to Meet Your Specific Needs: When you hire an apprentice, you can train them to meet your specific needs and preferences. This can be especially helpful if you have a niche you specialise in or a way you prefer to run your business.
By teaching them your specific way of doing things, they can take on some of the workload so that you can focus on other areas of your business.
2. It's an Investment in Your Business: Taking on an apprentice is an investment in your business. Not only will they be working for you and helping to grow your business, but they'll also be learning valuable skills they can use later on down the road.
You can hire them directly from their apprenticeship into your workforce, so your investment in them can continue as they already know how you like things to operate and be managed.
3. You'll Be Helping to Grow the Industry: When you hire an apprentice electrician, you'll do your part to help grow the industry. By providing someone with the opportunity to learn and gain experience in the field, you're helping to ensure that qualified electricians are available to meet the needs of businesses and homeowners now and in the future.
So there you have it! As a self-employed electrician in Australia, you can hire an apprentice.
You can opt for the Do-It-Yourself option, which is an involved process, or you can use a service like Hire Onsite to make onboarding an electrical apprentice much easier. Happy hiring!