Employers who want to take on an apprentice in Victoria would need a licence to do it. The Bill that sets that up is not a discussion paper. It is already in the Legislative Assembly.
The Education and Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026 passed its first reading on 11 August 2026. The second reading was moved the following day. If it passes in its current form, entering a training contract with an apprentice or trainee in Victoria without a licence becomes an offence.
The licence would last one year and need renewing every year after that.
That is the headline, and it is the part that has driven the early reaction. But the detail underneath changes the picture in ways that are worth understanding properly, because the timeline is far longer than the debate suggests and the parts that will affect builders most have not been written yet.
What the Bill actually does
Three things, structurally.
First, it moves regulation of apprenticeships and traineeships away from the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority and hands it to Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, under a new Apprenticeship and Traineeship Commissioner.
Second, it repeals the existing employer approval scheme in Part 5.5 of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and replaces it with an employer licence.
Third, it gives the regulator a graduated set of compliance and enforcement powers, along with formal information sharing with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, the Building and Plumbing Commission, Energy Safe Victoria, the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Labour Hire Licensing Authority and WorkSafe Victoria.
The Explanatory Memorandum sets out the intent. Stronger oversight across the life of an apprenticeship, aimed at improving the experience and lifting completion rates.
What the licence would actually involve
An application goes to Workforce Inspectorate Victoria. In deciding whether to grant it, the regulator must consider the suitability of the premises where training would happen, the suitability of the equipment and methods used, and whether any supervisor has the right qualifications, knowledge and skills.
It must also decide whether the applicant is a fit and proper person, both to enter a training contract and to train an apprentice under one.
That test reaches further than most licensing tests builders currently deal with. Applications must disclose findings of guilt against directors or partners over the previous ten years for indictable offences, offences involving fraud or dishonesty, and offences or civil penalty orders under a defined set of laws. That set includes the Fair Work Act, the Corporations Act, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013.
For builders who already carry registrations and licences across several regulators, the practical question is not whether the test is reasonable. It is how much of the same evidence has to be assembled again for a different agency, every year.
Licence holders would also need to tell the regulator within 30 days of any change to the information they provided. Details of licence holders, and of people whose licence has been cancelled, would sit on a public Register of Employer Licences published online.
What it costs to get it wrong
Entering or purporting to enter a training contract without a licence carries a maximum of 120 penalty units for an individual and 600 penalty units for a body corporate. The same provision also operates as a civil penalty, which gives the regulator a choice about how to pursue it.
A Victorian penalty unit is $209.10 for the 2026 to 2027 financial year. On that basis the maximum exposure works out at roughly $25,092 for an individual and $125,460 for a company.
Failing to comply with a condition attached to a licence carries the same maximums. Failing to notify a change of information carries 10 penalty units for an individual and 50 for a body corporate.
The transition is measured in years, not months. Existing approvals stay valid until 1 July 2030.
The timeline almost nobody is discussing
This is the part missing from most of the coverage so far.
The apprenticeship chapter of the Bill does not start when the Bill passes. It commences on a day to be proclaimed, with a backstop of 1 July 2029. So the scheme may not switch on for close to three years.
More importantly for anyone currently training apprentices, employer approvals already granted under the old scheme continue in force until 1 July 2030. An approved employer does not need to do anything on day one. They can apply for a licence at any point before that date.
The Bill also protects apprentices caught in the middle. Where an employer holds an approval and does not move to a licence, existing training contracts continue for three months after the approval expires, so the apprentice has time to find another employer rather than losing the contract outright.
None of that makes the scheme costless. It does mean the choice facing a Victorian builder is not urgent, and that there is a long window in which the detail can still change.
The standards that will matter most have not been written
Here is the genuine problem with assessing the Bill right now.
The obligations that will actually govern day to day behaviour are not in it. The Bill inserts a new head of power into Schedule 5 of the Principal Act allowing standards to be prescribed by regulation, covering the induction of apprentices, the provision of training, work and support, access to facilities and equipment, supervision, and the resolution of complaints.
Licence holders must comply with those standards as far as is reasonably practicable. Breaching them attracts 120 penalty units for an individual and 600 for a body corporate.
The standards themselves do not exist yet. They will be made as regulations later. So an employer can read the Bill in full today and still not know what compliance will require.
That is a fair criticism and it does not depend on anyone’s media release. It is visible in the structure of the Bill itself.
The scheme it replaces already has teeth
One argument being made is that the current framework is adequate and simply needs enforcing. There is something to that. The existing approval scheme is not decorative. Following Fair Work Ombudsman court proceedings, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority has revoked a builder’s approval to employ apprentices outright.
The counter argument, and the one the reform rests on, is that the existing scheme is a one off approval with no periodic reassessment and limited enforcement tooling behind it.
Both things can be true. The open question is whether annual relicensing is the proportionate answer, or whether better resourcing of the current regulator would achieve the same outcome at lower cost to the people doing the training.
Where the reform came from
This did not appear from nowhere.
The Victorian Government established an Apprenticeships Taskforce in July 2023, chaired by Sharan Burrow AC, in response to evidence of harm to apprentices including bullying, harassment, unsafe workplaces, wage theft and six workplace fatalities since October 2018. It reported with 16 recommendations. The Government supported seven in full and nine in principle.
Recommendation 8 asked for an employer registration scheme using risk based criteria, alongside outcome based employer standards covering workplace safety, supervision, quality of training and mentoring. Those recommendations were reached by consensus between employer and union representatives on the Taskforce.
It is worth noting the shift. The Taskforce recommended registration. The Bill delivers licensing, which is a heavier instrument with an annual renewal cycle and an offence attached to operating without one.
The Taskforce also identified problems the Bill does not solve, including the pipeline of TAFE trade teachers. Victoria can lift standards for employers, but the state still needs enough qualified people to teach them when apprentices go to class.
The numbers underneath the argument
Victoria is not adding regulation into a healthy apprenticeship market.
National Centre for Vocational Education Research data for the December 2025 quarter shows Victoria had 57,015 apprentice and trainee contracts in training at 31 December 2025. That is down 11.5 per cent in a year, and down 22.3 per cent since 2021. Over the 12 months, Victoria recorded the largest fall in trade commencements of any state or territory.
Construction carries a disproportionate share of the national load. More than one third of all apprentices and trainees in Australia, 37.5 per cent, are employed in construction.
And the training is concentrated in exactly the businesses that would carry the new administrative load. Nationally, 31.5 per cent of trade contracts in training sit with employers of 5 to 19 people. Research also indicates small employers train apprentices best while carrying the highest retention risk.
There is a more encouraging signal in the same release. Trade commencements rose 12.5 per cent nationally in the December quarter compared with the same quarter a year earlier, with growth in electricians, carpenters and joiners, and plumbers. Whether that recovery holds is the thing worth watching.
What industry is saying
The Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce has publicly opposed the Bill, arguing that the reform targets the wrong problem. Its position is that the immediate constraint is finding employers willing to take apprentices on, not oversight of those already doing it, and that adding a licensing layer on top of existing obligations gives employers another reason to say no. It has also pointed to the number of bodies already involved, including the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, Apprenticeships Victoria, WorkSafe Victoria, the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission.
Concern about cost is not new either. When the Government published its response to the Taskforce, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry formally registered its opposition to the recommendation dealing with how the new regulatory arrangements would be funded.
On the other side sits the Taskforce record itself, and the safety case behind it, which was agreed by employer representatives as well as unions.
What Victorian builders can do now
Not much needs doing this month. But a few things are worth knowing.
- If you hold a current approval to employ apprentices, it remains valid until 1 July 2030. There is no cliff edge in this Bill.
- The Bill provides for internal review of decisions within 14 days, with a decision due within 28 days, and then review by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Refusal and cancellation are not final.
- If you renew a licence under the new scheme, you cannot enter a new training contract between lodging the application and getting a decision. That has scheduling consequences worth planning around.
- Group training organisation registration under the Bill requires holding a labour hire licence as well as an employer licence.
- The Bill requires a review of these changes to begin within five years of the old scheme being repealed.
The bigger point is that workforce regulation keeps moving, and the businesses that handle it best are the ones with their compliance records already in order rather than assembled under pressure. That is a fundamental of running a building business in Australia, not a Victorian problem.
The Bill is live in Parliament now. The standards that will define it are still to be drafted. That second stage is where the practical detail gets decided, and it is the one worth paying attention to.
Frequently asked questions
No. The Bill is before Parliament and has not passed. Even once it does, the apprenticeship provisions commence on a day to be proclaimed, with a backstop of 1 July 2029. Employer approvals already granted under the current scheme continue in force until 1 July 2030.
One year from the day it is granted or renewed, unless it is cancelled or surrendered earlier. Renewal requires a fresh application, and the regulator uses that process to reassess ongoing suitability.
Existing training contracts continue for three months after the employer’s approval expires. The Explanatory Memorandum states this is designed to avoid cancelling apprentices’ contracts unintentionally and to give them time to find another employer to train under.
A maximum of 120 penalty units for an individual and 600 penalty units for a body corporate. At the 2026 to 2027 penalty unit value of $209.10, that is approximately $25,092 and $125,460. The provision also operates as a civil penalty provision.
Yes. The Bill provides for internal review by Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, applied for within 14 days of being notified, with a decision generally due within 28 days. That can then be reviewed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Related articles
More than 10,000 apprentices qualified in 2025 as construction trades dominate completions
Victoria’s top apprentice started with a job ad for Antarctica
This article is general information only. It reflects the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026 as introduced and before the Victorian Parliament on 18 August 2026. The Bill may be amended before it passes, and the employer standards referred to are yet to be made. Builders should confirm their current obligations with Apprenticeships Victoria or seek their own professional guidance.
Sources: Education and Training Reform Amendment (Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Schools and Other Matters) Bill 2026 and Explanatory Memorandum, legislation.vic.gov.au; Apprenticeships Taskforce final report and Victorian Government response, apprenticeships.vic.gov.au; Apprentices and trainees 2025: December quarter, NCVER; Indexation of fees and penalties, Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance.
0 Comments