Apprentice tradies are walking away before finishing training

THE number of construction apprentices who are dropping out is climbing, latest figures show.

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) highlights the ongoing headwinds against Australia’s construction apprenticeship pipeline. 

During the March 2025 quarter, 15,015 new construction apprentices commenced their training – a reduction of 2.6 per cent on the same period a year earlier. 

While completions rose strongly, with 7,482 apprentices successfully finishing their training (a 20.3 per cent lift on the previous year), this positive outcome was overshadowed by 7,550 withdrawals over the same period.

This marks the second consecutive quarter where the number of dropouts exceeded completions. 

At the end of March 2025, 115,970 construction apprentices remained in training, 4.6 per cent fewer than a year earlier. 

These figures come in the week that it was revealed tens of thousands of additional tradies are needed to meet the 1.2 million Housing Accord target.

 Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said: “Boosting completions is encouraging, but it’s deeply concerning that more apprentices are leaving their training than finishing it.

“With commencements continuing to fall and withdrawals outpacing completions, we are going backwards at a time when the nation desperately needs to build more homes, infrastructure and commercial projects. 

“The building and construction industry is already short more than 100,000 workers if we’re to meet the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029. These numbers show the pipeline is shrinking, not growing. 

“Labour shortages are the single biggest handbrake on delivering the homes and infrastructure Australians need.

“We need government to work with industry to reduce the cost and friction of employing an apprentice and to ensure every apprentice has the best chance of success.” 

The report by Build Skills Australia, the government’s jobs and skills council, says there is a 116,700 shortfall in tradies.

“Significantly more workers will need to be allocated to the residential construction sector to achieve the Housing Accord ambition,” its Housing Workforce Capacity Study notes.

Read that report in Australian Conveyancer here