Three generations in, the apprenticeship is the reason the firm still exists.
There is a shortage of licensed plumbers in Melbourne, and every firm our size feels it. The short-term fix is to poach qualified tradespeople from competitors. The long-term fix is to train your own, and it is much harder.
An apprentice is not productive for the first year or more. They need supervision from someone who could otherwise be on their own job, and the maths in year one is plainly negative.
We do it anyway because most of our current team came through it. Marco started as our apprentice in 2011. The reason our sites are tidy and our people talk to clients properly is that they learned it here, from people who do it that way.
We structure the four years deliberately so apprentices rotate across renovation, gas and drainage rather than spending three years doing whatever is least skilled. That takes more planning and it means we cannot simply use them as labour on the biggest job of the week.
If you are considering the trade, or you know a school leaver who is, we take on one or two a year and we would rather hear from someone genuinely interested than someone with experience but no interest.
Planning something like this?
We will give you an honest cost range before anyone writes a quote.