$200 for a set of sockets? $400 for an impact drill? $2000 for a decent toolbox! A career in the trades doesn’t come cheap and by the time you’ve finished your four-year stint as an apprentice, you’ll likely have tens of thousands of dollars in tools sitting in the back of the luxy.
Tradie pay might be pretty sweet these days, but that is still bound to put a decent dent in the bank balance.
In an attempt to ease this pressure on apprentices earning the lowest hourly, Queensland has announced they will be slashing the price tag of tools of the trade with an extension of the ‘Free Tools for First Years’ initiative.
This program sees an additional 10,000 first-year apprentices working in the home building sector since the 25th of May handed up to $1000 cash-back after completing their three-month probation period, making the basics they need to get started virtually free.
And for first-year carpentry apprentice Kody Liekmeier, a thousand bucks goes a long way.
“I’ve always wanted to build stuff,” he said.
“This will help me so much, with apprentice wages being a bit tough, $1,000 to take off your tool bill is a really good thing to have.
“I’ve just recently bought a Makita kit, including an impact driver, a saw, and a planer for carpentry, along with a leaf blower to clean up the site.”
The cash is being handed out to qualifications from all over the housing sector, including construction, plumbing, bricklaying, tiling, plastering, painting, cabinet making, stonemasonry, joinery, engineering, and electrical trades.
According to the Minister for Training and Skills Development, Lance McCallum, any Queenslander keen to pick up the tools to ease the housing crisis will have their tab picked up by the state government.
“The Free Tools for First Years program shows Labor’s dedication to real cost of living relief; breaking down financial barriers so that more Queenslanders can pursue rewarding careers in construction,” he said.
“Our apprentices are critical to the success of Queensland’s construction industry; by providing up to $1,000 for their tools, we’re ensuring they have what they need to excel from day one.”
Ministers claim that initiatives like this are committed to handing the essential workers responsible for fulfilling Queensland’s Big Build promises to provide “real cost-of-living relief”.
But with unrealistic housing targets looming large over the industry and groups like Master Builders predicting a 500,000 shortfall of tradies in the next five years, Planning Minister Meaghan Scanlon hopes the subsidy also entices more workers into the fold by lowering the price of entry.
“We’re giving Queenslanders the actual tools they’ll need to help build more homes, faster,” she said.
“The price tag on tools can be a barrier for many Queenslanders wanting to take up a trade, and the businesses who want to hire them – we’re tackling that barrier with cashback.”
