Issued: 18 November 2011
Reviewed: 18 August 2025
A part-time apprenticeship or traineeship will only be approved where part-time employment is supported by an appropriate industrial award or agreement.
Note: Casual employees who commence a part-time or full-time apprenticeship or traineeship with the same employer cease to be casuals and must be considered part-time/full-time employees by their employer effective from the commencement date of the training contract. As such, the employee is entitled to all the minimum employment conditions outlined in the award or agreement including accruing leave entitlements e.g. annual, personal, carers or Long Service leave etc. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that they follow the relevant Award or agreement.
Part-time apprenticeship and traineeship arrangements are established with support from industry and are specified in the relevant Vocational Training Order (VTO).
Hours of work
A person undertaking a part-time apprenticeship or traineeship must be offered regular hours of employment and training each week for the duration of the training contract.
The hours of work and training undertaken by the apprentice or trainee each week must meet the minimum part-time hours specified in the relevant Vocational Training Order (VTO).
If the VTO does not specify minimum part-time hours for an apprenticeship or traineeship vocation, the following minimum hours apply:
- The minimum part-time hours for an apprenticeship are 21 hours per week.
The minimum part-time hours for a traineeship are:
- 15 hours per week for traineeships with a full-time term of less than two years.
- 21 hours per week for traineeships with a full-time term of two years or more.
These hours may be averaged over each four week period for the duration of the training contract.
Formal training requirements
For part time apprentices or trainees, the number of hours specified in the training contract must include the hours required to be undertaken for formal training delivered by their Registered Training Organisation (RTO), as outlined in the Training Plan.
Delivery of the formal training should not be affected by the proposed part-time arrangements. The provisions of the current training plan guidelines apply equally to a part-time apprenticeship or traineeship as they do for a full-time apprenticeship or traineeship in that the apprentice or trainee must be withdrawn from routine work duties, with pay, for a minimum of 3 hours per week, averaged over a 4 week period, for the purpose of undertaking formal training/ learning/ assessment activities.
Training contract term
The term of training to be undertaken by a part-time apprentice or trainee is specified in the Vocational Training Order (VTO). If the VTO does not specify a part-time term, and the appropriate award for that vocation includes part-time provisions, the following terms are to apply:
- The term of a part-time apprenticeship is one-and-a-half times the term of a full-time apprenticeship in the same vocation.
- The term of a part-time traineeship is:
- twice the term of a full-time traineeship in the same vocation (where the full-time term is less than two years), or
- one-and-a-half times the term of a full time traineeship in the same vocation (where the full-time term is two years or more).
If credit is sought for previous relevant experience or training, it must be included on the application for a part-time apprenticeship or traineeship in pro-rata terms (e.g. one-and-a-half or twice the length of time served in a previous full-time contract).
Changes to employment type or hours of employment
If circumstances change during the term of the training contract, the employment type in the training contract may be amended. The amendment must meet the VTO requirement and the relevant Award or agreement.
In accordance with Section 21 of the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Act, an application can be made to vary a training contract prior to the Expected Completion Date (ECD). The employer and the apprentice or trainee can make this request by completing an Application to Vary an Apprenticeship or Traineeship. Both the employer and apprentice or trainee must give consent to vary a training contract.
An application to vary a training contract may also be made be either the employer or apprentice or trainee alone, without the consent of the other party. In these circumstances Training Services will request consent from the other party and attempt to negotiate an agreed outcome.
If an employer and their part-time apprentice or/ trainee agree to vary the part-time hours, as long as the apprentice or trainee is still categorised as part time, there is no need to apply to Training Services for variation of the training contract, providing that the hours of work and training continue to meet the minimum requirement specified above.
School based apprenticeships and traineeships
These provisions do not affect the minimum requirements that apply to school based apprenticeships and traineeships. The parties to a school based apprenticeship may apply for the post-HSC component of the apprenticeship to be undertaken on a part-time basis, subject to appropriate industrial coverage.
The Commissioner for Vocational Training