FIFO Apprenticeships
It's possible to get an apprenticeship in FIFO. But an apprentice has to be beside a tradesperson every shift and at TAFE, the state-run training college, in between, and that's easier to arrange in town than on a mine. So the more likely route is to get your trade the usual way and apply afterwards.
What a FIFO apprenticeship is
A FIFO apprenticeship is a four-year trade apprenticeship where the apprentice flies to a mine site for each swing, with TAFE blocks in between. Most mining apprenticeships are based in a city workshop or a mining town instead.
FIFO apprenticeships: Where to start
- Leaving school this yearStart here
- Working already, want a tradeStart here
- Want to be a sparkyStart here
- Want the site now, not four years of TAFEStart here
Find FIFO apprenticeships
The ads are on SEEK (opens in a new tab), Indeed (opens in a new tab) and Jora (opens in a new tab). Search "apprentice intake" and "traineeship" as well as "FIFO apprenticeship", because most intakes don't use the word FIFO.
Before you apply, check where each ad's flights leave from, called the point of hire. Getting there is usually up to you.
FIFO apprenticeships at a glance
| Pay | Apprentices $14 to $35 an hour in the ads, by year; trainee operators $38 to $49.65 an hour |
|---|---|
| Rosters | 8:6 (eight days on, six off) or 2:2 on the apprenticeships that fly; Monday to Friday, or four days on and three off, on the local ones; 2:1 on most fly-in traineeships |
| Flies from | The few that fly leave from the hub the ad names, such as Perth or Karratha |
| You'll need | Driver's licence, White Card, Australian citizen or permanent resident, police check; medical after the offer |
| Experience | None for most intakes; a pre-apprenticeship helps |
| Who hires | BHP, Glencore, Evolution Mining, Ausdrill, Epiroc, Monadelphous, the group training companies, and the drilling contractors for traineeships |
Pay from the job ads of 12 October 2026; listings checked October 2026.
Can you get an apprenticeship in FIFO?
Short answer
An apprenticeship in FIFO exists, but the October 2026 ads had only a handful, and most were open only to certain applicants or flew only in the later years.
The catch is in the word FIFO. A SEEK search for "FIFO apprenticeship" on 12 October 2026 found 1,424 ads, and two on its first page of thirty were apprenticeships that flew from the start. GetCareers, a group training company, had a mechanical fitting apprenticeship on an 8:6 roster out of East Perth. Ganaji Contracting had an electrical one on a 2:2 (two weeks on, two off) in the Pilbara.
Skill Hire wanted Indigenous apprentices already in their third or fourth year for a fly-in project at Karratha. Ausdrill, Epiroc and GetCareers all said in their ads that they encouraged women to apply.
FIFO electrical apprenticeships
Fly-in electrical apprenticeships were rare in October 2026. Ganaji Contracting's, in the Pilbara's oil and gas industry, was for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants. Minelec's, starting in Townsville in January 2027, said its apprentices might work in town or away on projects, fly-in or drive-in.
For most people the electrical apprenticeship is in town, through a group training organisation such as Connect Resources, a contractor, or a miner's own program such as Glencore's. The licence at the end of it opens the FIFO electrician jobs, which were advertised at $60 to $105 an hour in October 2026.
How do you apply for a FIFO apprenticeship?
Short answer
You apply for a FIFO apprenticeship through an intake, which opens once a year, or an expression of interest that stays open. Ausdrill's 2027 intake, open in October 2026, trains apprentices in its Perth workshop and puts them on fly-in rosters from the third year.
The intakes are the thing to watch. Glencore had closed its coal apprenticeship intake for 2027 by October 2026, and said the 2028 one would open in April 2027. BHP's four-year apprenticeships are site-based, and its careers page calls the intakes seasonal and suggests a job alert. An intake takes applications for a few weeks, shortlists, runs its tests and a medical, and starts everyone together in the new year, so a missed window is a year's wait.
One line in the ads catches people out: the GetCareers fly-in apprenticeship wanted a full licence, "NO P-PLATES or provisional licences accepted", so a seventeen-year-old can't apply for that one until the plates come off. Ausdrill's and GetCareers' ads also wanted applicants who already lived in Perth.
Step by step, to a FIFO apprenticeship
- Finish school to the level your target intakes ask for: Year 10 for most, Year 12 for some (what the ads ask for).
- Do the pre-apprenticeship certificate for your trade at TAFE, while your P-plates come off (leaving school).
- Get your White Card, a full driver's licence and a police check (the first tickets). Every course asks for your USI (Unique Student Identifier), a free number you make online.
- Set job alerts for the apprentice intakes, because each one opens only briefly, once a year.
- Live near the work if you can: the intakes cluster in Perth's workshop suburbs and in mining towns, and some ask for a local address (apprenticeships in WA and Queensland).
- If you're already working, get a trade assistant's job first, so a supervisor knows your work when an adult apprenticeship comes up (the trade assistant route).
- Once you're offered a place, the employer books the medical and drug screen and signs your training contract.
- In your first year, expect the small jobs beside a tradesperson, and spells at TAFE between swings (a first-year day).
What the ads ask for
Most ads ask for:
- A driver's licence: manual on some ads, and full, with no P-plates, on some
- A White Card
- Australian citizenship or permanent residency
- Year 10 at least, and Year 12 on some intakes
- A national police check, with the application on some
After the offer, the employer arranges:
- A pre-employment medical and a drug and alcohol screen
- The training contract and a place at TAFE or a training organisation
Nice to have, and what each one gets you:
- The Certificate II pre-apprenticeship in your trade: some intakes ask for one, and others say it helps
- A stint as a trade assistant on site: work experience some ads count, and a supervisor who knows your name
The tickets page has where to do the White Card and what it costs.
Leaving school: the pre-apprenticeship first
A school leaver's path is the pre-apprenticeship: a Certificate II at TAFE in the trade you want. One of Glencore's apprentices said in a 2023 company video that he spent the first six months of his apprenticeship "mainly focusing on hand skills" before he went out to the site. Do it while the P-plates run out, then apply to every intake that opens.
Already working: the trade assistant route
An adult who wants the trade but can't take four years on an apprentice's wage often goes in sideways. A trade assistant, the hand beside the tradesperson, earns site wages from day one, and a supervisor choosing an adult apprentice already knows the trade assistant's work. Some intakes take adults straight in: Glencore says mature-age applicants are welcome in its coal program. The trade assistant page covers the job itself.
FIFO apprenticeships in WA and Queensland
In Western Australia the mining apprenticeships advertised in October 2026 were mostly in workshops in Perth's industrial suburbs, such as Hazelmere, Forrestfield, Kewdale and Malaga, or in Kalgoorlie and Port Hedland. In Queensland they were mostly in the mining towns and the cities near them, such as Townsville, Mount Isa, Blackwater and Biloela. Some asked for an address in the region, so a school leaver who lives there has the edge on one from Brisbane.
What is a FIFO traineeship, and how is it different?
Short answer
A FIFO traineeship is a paid entry job with a qualification attached, a Certificate II or III, that usually takes a year or two instead of four. Trainee drillers, process operators and riggers were among the fly-in traineeships in October 2026. They pay adult site wages from the first day, which an apprenticeship doesn't.
A traineeship is the door the word FIFO actually opens, as long as it's the right kind. Maca and Niche Resources wanted trainee drillers to fly in, and Niche's offsider job came with a two-year traineeship to qualified driller. Gold Fields had a twelve-month trainee process operator job, eight days on and six off, and Monadelphous a rigging traineeship that flies to projects around Australia.
The trainee truck operator jobs were the exception: WorkPac's, Thiess's and Programmed's all wanted someone who already lived near the mine, and the no-experience page has the count and the rest of those jobs. The trade-off is the certificate at the end: a ticket to drive on a mine or run a rig, not a trade, and it doesn't travel to a building site in the city the way an electrical licence does.
How much does a FIFO apprentice earn?
Short answer
A FIFO apprentice earns an apprentice's rate, which rises each year of the four: apprenticeship ads in October 2026 offered $14 to $35 an hour. The apprentice rate is low because the employer is paying for four years of training, and a qualified tradesperson's rate is far higher.
| Role | Advertised pay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice, lowest hourly ad | $14 - $25 per hour | SEEK, GetCareers, October 2026 |
| Apprentice, highest hourly ad | $25 – $35 per hour | SEEK, LM Air, October 2026 |
| Trainee operator, lowest hourly ad | $38 an hour | Jora, Programmed, October 2026 |
| Trainee operator, highest hourly ad | $49.65 per hour | SEEK, One Key Resources, October 2026 |
Apprentice: the bottom and top ad of each kind, from 7 job ads of 12 October 2026; the middle hourly figure is $27.50 an hour. Trainee operator: the bottom and top ad of each kind, from 5 job ads of 12 October 2026; the middle hourly figure is $43 an hour. Only ads that stated a figure are in the table. Most don't.
To see what any of those rates comes to over a swing or a year after tax, put it into the FIFO pay calculator.
On a fly-in roster the camp means no rent and no food bill on the swing. In a 2023 Glencore video, a qualified electrician said its coal apprenticeship held back a performance payment over the four years and paid it as one lump sum at the end. He called it "not a bad savings deposit for a house".
What does a FIFO apprentice actually do?
A typical day for a first-year apprentice
When the roster flies, the camp is the village of dongas, mess and gym beside the site, and the day starts there with the bus before dawn. The apprentice is attached to a tradesperson for the shift, and the first year is the small jobs around them. A fourth-year apprentice boilermaker in a workshop described his in a 2022 video for his group training company: "mostly working beside tradesmen cleaning up sharp edges helping pack up stuff, you know, just simple first year apprentice jobs like that." By his fourth year he was building a hopper for the ammonium nitrate that goes down the blast holes, without a tradesman beside him.
What is a FIFO apprenticeship really like?
Short answer
A FIFO apprenticeship is four years of twelve-hour days beside tradespeople who set the pace of what you learn, with the camp instead of home on the nights between. The money is the city apprentice's money, while the trade assistant in the next donga earns site wages for the same hours.
The camp room at twenty-one
A young tech on a FIFO interview show on YouTube, who started flying in less than a year after his apprenticeship, was asked what he wished someone had told him. It wasn't technical.
All my friends back home, they were going out and partying... on the weekend doing fun stuff, and you're seeing photos on social media... of them having a good time and you're stuck in a little camp room doing nothing. That really got to me at the start.
The tech said it passed: as time went on, the same photos looked like the same weekend on repeat. A Glencore electrician who had finished his apprenticeship said it plainly in a video for the company in 2023: "you'll be surprised how quickly a four-year apprenticeship goes". If a swing turns bad, Lifeline is 13 11 14, any hour.
Where does a FIFO apprenticeship lead?
Short answer
A FIFO apprenticeship leads to a trade certificate recognised in every state, and a trade rate from the day it's signed off. Site inductions and a supervisor's word are what the contractors hire on first, so a tradesperson who finished on site is ahead of one from the city.
The trade is the thing that travels: a Certificate III and a licence mean the same in Tasmania as in the Pilbara. Leading hand can come early for the ones a supervisor trusts to find work for the crew. A young instrument technician said in a 2018 YouTube interview that he was made leading hand at twenty-one, a few months into his first FIFO job, giving tasks to men with thirty years in the game.
Is a FIFO apprenticeship right for you?
Two honest questions
- Do you want the trade, or the site? The trade means four years at apprentice pay, in town for most people, with the site after. The site now is a traineeship, and it ends with a ticket, not a trade. Pick before you apply, because changing roads later costs years.
- Can you live on apprentice pay for four years while your mates don't? The camp covers rent and food on the swing; it doesn't cover the ute, the partner or the weekends you watch on your phone.
Ready to look?
If you've read this far and still want in, get the paperwork sorted and the pre-apprenticeship under way, then watch the intakes.
- FIFO apprenticeships on SEEK (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO apprenticeships on Indeed (opens in a new tab)
- FIFO apprenticeships on Jora (opens in a new tab)
- All job boards, contractors and agencies in one list
Fake ads turn up on real job boards too. An ad that asks you to pay a fee before you start is a warning sign: report it to Scamwatch (opens in a new tab).
The apprenticeship is one question. Whether the fly-in life suits you is six more. Three minutes. Free.
Is FIFO right for me?