When not toiling in a sweaty underground substation, Aurelia St Quintin spends her days slaving over her university texts.

The third-year apprentice electrician joined Ausgrid directly out of high school and is concurrently completing a bachelor of electrical engineering.

“My career looks a lot different to that of most of my friends,” she said.

“But I feel really proud when we’re together, to point out infrastructure and be able to explain to them how it all works.”

St Quintin said she enjoyed the challenge of a busy schedule and learning how the concepts of her apprenticeship and degree complimented each other.

From today, apprentices will be celebrated and apprenticeships promoted as a way of highlighting their role in shaping the future of industry across the country, during National Apprenticeship Week.

Apprenticeships boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, boosted by a $1.2 billion federal wage subsidy. Since it expired, commencement numbers have fallen away.

Still, figures show a few fields have remained resilient, including electricians and child care workers.

Apprentice numbers state by state

Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research

According to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 133,255 Australians began apprenticeships in the 12 months to June 30, down 51.9 per cent from their peak in 2021/22.

Trades in-training starts in 2024/25 remained higher than they were before 2019 but non-trade traineeships were about 10 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.

Among the fields that where apprenticeships grew from 2022-25 while their overall workforces shrunk were environmental science, structural steel and welding work, aircraft maintenance engineering, toolmaking and engineering pattern-making, air-conditioning mechanics, aged and disabled care, security work and livestock farming.

In Newcastle, 35-year-old Joshua Jones is an electrician at fibre optic and data cabling company RAD Electric after receiving his TAFE electrotechnology certificate.

“Electrical is a trade where your skills are in demand and can take you anywhere,” he said.

“An apprenticeship gives you real experience, real qualifications and long-term career options.”

As a father, Jones said choosing a trade that offered stability and long-term career options was important to him.

An apprenticeship seemed an obvious choice to Elisha Jane Grice, from NSW. Photo: AAP

Elisha Jane Grice, a mum of two on the NSW central coast who works as electrician with Terrigal Electrical after getting a similar TAFE certificate, said she was drawn to the trade for its hands-on nature.

“I knew I didn’t want a general office job,” she said.

“I love being outdoors and doing something different every day and an apprenticeship really suited that.”

She is the only woman in her training cohort but describes both TAFE and her workplace as supportive environments, crediting her employer with being flexible about family life.

“An apprenticeship is sometimes seen as the easy option but it’s definitely not,” Grice said.

“The skills you learn are so valuable and you can take them anywhere, which makes it really rewarding.”

At 35, Josh Jones is among the trend towards older apprentices. Photo: AAP

Grice and Jones are part of a trend of more mature Australians taking up apprenticeships.

Commencements among 25-44-year-olds are up 54 per cent since 1995, compared with 17 per cent growth for those 19 and under.

“What we’re seeing in classrooms right across the state is a real shift in who is coming into trades,” TAFE NSW electrical trades team leader Stuart Bailey said.

“More adults are choosing apprenticeships because they want practical skills, secure work and a career that can grow with them.”

Older students brought life experience and motivation and a clear sense of purpose and stability, Bailey said.

Ausgrid welcomed its most recent intake of apprentices into its “bright spark” program in January.

The cohort, which includes mature-age starters, gets to choose from three trade streams: Electrical, linework and cable jointing.

Ausgrid says each offers on-the-job rotational training with experienced field teams across overhead works, substations, transmission lines, underground works and safety. The company maintains the poles, wires and cable that deliver power to more than 1.8 million NSW customers.

“It’s a really exciting time to take up an apprenticeship in the energy sector,” the company’s group executive for people and culture, Celina Cross, said.

“An apprenticeship with Ausgrid is no longer just a trade pathway, it’s a front-row seat to the energy transition.

“We are feeling the impacts of a growing skills gap in the energy industry and we’re responding by investing in our apprenticeships to build capability now, and into the future.”

Cross said Ausgrid offered its apprentices supervision, support and mentoring from experienced field teams during the program.

Just over a quarter of the apprentices are women.

St Quintin said she had enjoyed great support and mentoring but added the early starts were an adjustment; she’s not a morning person.

There were also days where Ausgrid’s underground substations in the Sydney CBD could get very warm. But the job was so interesting she got used to it.

St Quintin now works on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, learning about protecting electrical infrastructure, including overhead lines and kiosks.

She hopes to become an engineering officer when she finishes her studies so she can do both technical and field work.

-AAP