Everthought

TradieStart Apprentice Incentive is now open for registration

Queensland construction employers can access up to $16,000 in government funding to hire, train and mentor new apprentices, with Year 1 support starting at $10,000. This is a direct investment in building the state's next generation of skilled tradespeople, and it's a significant opportunity for businesses ready to grow their teams.

Here's what you need to know:

Registrations opened 1 August 2026
Two eligibility streams:
Stream 1 for small businesses (1 to 19 employees, turnover under $10m) and Stream 2 for medium/large employers and Group Training Organisations.

Payments are staged at 6 and 18 months, with higher bonus payments available for apprentices who identify as female, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, veterans, or people with disability.

Funding is capped at the first 2,500 eligible apprentices statewide (1,500 places under Stream 1, 1,000 under Stream 2), so early registration matters.

If you're a Queensland employer thinking about bringing on a construction apprentice, now is the time to act.
Everthought Education can help you check your eligibility, connect with a suitable apprentice, and get registered before places fill up.

Get in touch with Chris Dalton ([email protected]) or Dylan Singh ([email protected]) to get started.

everthought.edu.au

Nobody budgets for the cost of an expired competency until it shows up as a stop-work order, a failed audit, or worse.

The direct costs are obvious: fines, insurance disputes, lost tender eligibility. The hidden costs are bigger:

- Head contractors quietly deprioritising you on future projects
- Insurers loading premiums after an incident review reveals lapsed VOCs
- Supervisors making risk calls with unverified operators, because nobody flagged the gap

Expired competencies don't announce themselves. They sit quietly in a spreadsheet until something goes wrong. A live training matrix, reviewed monthly, not annually, is the cheapest insurance policy most businesses aren't taking out.

Enquire now
[email protected]

Every July, businesses reset budgets, targets and safety plans, but training compliance rarely gets the same disciplined review. That's a problem, because a new financial year is exactly when regulators, insurers and head contractors start asking harder questions about competency evidence.

Here's the uncomfortable truth we see on almost every site we visit: most businesses believe their workforce is compliant. Few can prove it in under five minutes.

The gap between "trained" and "current" is where risk lives. A Verification of Competency (VOC) confirms a worker can still safely and correctly perform a task today, not that they completed a course three years ago.

Licences don't expire, but competency does. Skills degrade with time off tools, changes in equipment, or simple complacency. A forklift operator who hasn't touched a truck in eight months is not the same operator who was assessed as competent last year.

This is why VOC assessments, not just licence checks, sit at the centre of a defensible compliance system, particularly for high-risk activities like Working at Heights and Confined Space entry, where the margin for error is measured in fatalities, not incidents.

Three questions every business should be able to answer right now:

1. Do we know exactly which competencies are current, expiring, or already lapsed, for every worker, not just new starters?
2. If a regulator or head contractor asked for evidence tomorrow, could we produce it without a scramble?
3. Is our training matrix actually being used to plan refreshers, or is it a static spreadsheet nobody opens?

If any answer is "not sure," FY27 is the year to fix it ! Not because compliance is a box-ticking exercise, but because the businesses that treat competency verification seriously are the ones winning tenders, passing audits, and keeping people safe.

Everthought Education works with businesses across construction, civil, mining, logistics and manufacturing to close exactly this gap, through VOC assessments, refresher training, and training matrices that hold up under scrutiny.
If you're not sure where your workforce stands, that's precisely what our Free Workforce Compliance Review is for.

Contact Us for more information.

[email protected]

New financial year. Same old question: can you actually prove your workforce is competent, or are you assuming it based on paperwork from last year?

A licence proves someone was assessed as competent once. It doesn't prove they still are.

FY27 is the time to separate the two. Start with your highest-risk activities, Working at Heights, Confined Spaces, mobile plant, and ask: when was this competency last verified, not just certified?

If you can't answer that in under a minute, your training matrix isn't doing its job.

Not sure where the gaps are? Contact our team for a compliance check, and we'll show you exactly where your training matrix falls short.

Come and see us at our Brisbane Open Day, and you could walk away with $300 in prizes! 🎉
Register & attend and go in the draw to win:
🟢 $100 Bunnings Voucher
🟡 $100 Total Workwear Voucher
🔴 $100 Sydney Tools Voucher
📍 Brisbane Campus
📅 Thursday 18 June
🕘 9am to 1pm
🎟️ Free Entry

Spots are limited. Register Now! https://everthought.edu.au/open-day-2026-brisbane/

Everthought College of Construction is running two short courses this June/July at our Cannington campus in Perth, and both are free for eligible participants*.

🟢 Bricklaying Job-Ready Program Supported by HIA and Brick & Block Careers → Hands-on bricklaying skills + pathway to an apprenticeship

🟢 Steel Frame Installation Short Course Supported by BlueScope Steel and Truecore → Practical steel framing skills + pathway to a carpentry apprenticeship

Both programs include your White Card, a Statement of Attainment, and potential employer placement for successful candidates.

📅 22 June – 16 July 2026
📍 92 Mallard Way, Cannington WA

*To be eligible you need to be:
- No longer attending school
- Unemployed or working less than 20 hours per week

Contact Nathan to find out more or get started at [email protected] or 0409 292 581

Today we honour the ANZACs who left home to serve their country. Their courage and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Lest we forget.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting some special guests at our campus for a tour of our facilities and a chance to meet our students in action.

We welcomed Andrew Giles MP, Minister for Skills and Training, along with Zaneta Mascarenhas MP, Member for Swan, and Phil Vaughan, Deputy Regional Executive Director at Housing Industry Association - HIA

It was a great chance to have a proper conversation about the skilled trades shortage facing Australia right now, and how Everthought and HIA are working to help close that gap.

Visits like this are a good reminder of why getting more young people into the trades matters 🙌 Thanks to everyone who came along and took the time to see what's happening on the ground.