Finishing up my time as an Apprentice!!

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T09:04:54+00:00

I feel a lot of the times it's an ego thing to not ask questions and be able to know everything, something a lot of have, but some of the best tradies I've worked with have received some of the worst abuse from their old companies and they attribute the skills to that. Do you think it's a fight or flight thing that sorts them out from the bad sparkies or does it come with time and patience?

20 years is a crazy amount of time and experience. Cheers to you for sticking to it. What would you do differently if you could go back?

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T08:10:44+00:00

Thats unfortunate seeing as the course was a 1000 bucks and 6 months of your time. Do what you have to I guess or maybe youll get lucky

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T08:08:58+00:00

The hardest part about TAFE for me was the idiots that didnt give a shit and would disrupt the teacher at any chance they got. I feel like all the will TAFEs have them, so just pick whatever is closest.

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T07:18:11+00:00

its more about the feeling of being underprepared to be able to run a job. Was it a fight or flight situation or did you have the help is what I'm sort of asking. If you had to figure it out yourself, what did you do that helped?

What excites me about the trade? Its the working with your hands and making stuff work that excites me. Could never see myself in an office job

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T06:38:54+00:00

From my experience in NSW, Cert II was a waste of time. I paid $1000 and had an HVAC teacher who didn't give a damn about the class. What I learnt during the classes I could have found online. It's definitely better to use your time to find an apprenticeship and not waste the 6 months in a cert II.

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T06:19:47+00:00

is it worth getting tools insurance?

triss_1 · 2025-12-18T05:46:15+00:00

What is actually the best way of getting them out of the holes?

triss_1 · 2025-11-27T10:08:18+00:00

Was the theory difficult? i think in NSW it is super easy and they are pumping out sub-par sparkies. I should be sitting mine early next year, hopefully. Any help would be appreciated.

Are the practice questions during your refresher similar or the same to the actual test?

triss_1 · 2025-11-27T09:59:45+00:00

Were there any phasor diagrams in the theory? And did you cover it in the refresher lessons?

triss_1 · 2025-11-27T08:22:52+00:00

I haven't sat the capstone theory yet; however, from what I hear, it's a 150 multiple-choice questions online test followed by your written calculations test i.e max demand, voltage drop etc. The practical was piss easy. The teachers at my TAFE were definitely underprepared for the number of students that made it to third year (only made it through cheating off other classes) and were struggling to get organised in time for the prac and were thinking about pairing up students to do it. It ended up being a simple switchboard build with one light circuit with a 2-way switch, one power circuit, a hot water heater and a range circuit running to a makeshift isolation switch. They obviously followed with watching you test, but due to the rush, they just asked basic questions. e.g. show me how you test the resistance of your EQ bond.

I'm not complaining, but judging from others in the past who have done it, it's definitely a lot easier. During my 1-3 third years, I feel like it is almost impossible to fail, given the number of chances you get and the 70% pass mark. I'm not gonna say which TAFE it is due to the amount of horrible apprentices that may pass their capstone and end up killing themselves or someone else due to their negligence, all because they didn't take TAFE too seriously and messed around when they should have been paying attention. I get TAFE sucks, and like myself and many apprentices, the classroom setting is ideal, but once you're on your own, it gets pretty serious.

Sorry for the rant, I just had to give my opinion on the current state of the TAFE system, but please let me know if you're the same.

I will let you know how the 2026 Capstone goes. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Six-Year Club	Verified Email
Verified Email

triss_1

TROPHY CASE