Australia is crying out for more tradies. Why aren’t young people answering?

June 18, 2026 — 12:00pm

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Australia has an apprenticeship problem. While many young people around the world are embracing trades and vocational jobs, the opposite is happening here.

In the US, the number of apprentices has risen by 80 per cent over the past decade, driven by a bleak graduate job market where a four-year university education no longer promises the same pathways to stable work as that of gaining experience on the job.

In China, the number of students taking gaokao, the university entrance exam, has declined steadily over the past few years, with people instead turning to vocational training to fast-track their way directly into a job market with a 16 per cent youth unemployment rate.

It’s a different story in Australia. According to the National Centre of Vocational Education Research, in the 12 months leading up to June 2025, trade apprenticeships fell by 7.3 per cent, and non-trade........

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