Working hours for school-based apprentices and trainees

Weekly and annual minimum working hours

As a school-based apprentice or trainee, you must:

• be paid for the work you do
• work at least 7.5 hours a week, averaged over every 3 months, for every 12 months of your training contract
• work at least 375 hours/50 days (or 600 hours/80 days in the electrotechnology industry) for every 12 months of your training contract.

Working hours do not include time spent undertaking training with your training organisation.

Working hours can be averaged out to account for exam periods, illness and other events. For example, if you can't work during exams, you can work more hours during the school holidays.

Working more hours than required

You can work more than the minimum required hours (e.g. by working on weekends and holidays), but you need to negotiate this with your employer, parent/guardian, school and training organisation.

Electrotechnology qualifications can only work a maximum of 100 days. The school-based apprentice will be in the workplace (on-the-job) a total of 600 hours (80 days) undertaking paid employment, for each year of the school-based apprenticeship (while not exceeding a combined yearly total of 100 days on and off the job).

Refer to the Queensland Training Information Service (QTIS) for detailed information on individual apprenticeships and traineeships.

Hours needed to complete a school-based traineeship

To complete your traineeship, you will need to have worked a minimum number of hours/days.

Learn more about total hours required to complete your traineeship.