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One of the big advantages of a vocational education is that you earn money while you learn. As a supply operator apprentice, you are employed by a supply company and receive apprentice pay — not state education grant — as soon as your training contract is in place. Here you get a grip on how pay works.

§Student wages instead of SU.

When you've signed an apprenticeship agreement with a company you get paid from the day the agreement takes effect — also in periods when you're in school. If you've completed basic course without finding an apprenticeship yet you can apply for student grant if you're over 18. The two things exclude each other: you're either a paid apprentice or student grant recipient.

§The agreement sets the rates

Your apprentice wages are not something the company freely sets. They follow the collective agreement that applies to the field — negotiated between employers and the union (in this field typically 3F). The agreement sets minimum rates for apprentices and they are graduated: the salary increases as you advance in your education.

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• 02The rates are negotiated and adjusted in the collective agreement — not by the individual employer
• 03If you are an adult, typically at least the minimum wage that would apply to an unskilled worker in the field applies.
• 04You have the same basic rights as other employees: vacation, pension under the rules, and a safe working environment

§What happens with the wages when you're out of your apprenticeship?

With the journeyman's certificate you shift status from apprentice to skilled and it typically gives a raise in pay and responsibility. As a skilled utility operator you are sought after because utility companies need people who both can work safely with electrical technology and operate modern monitoring equipment. The actual pay depends on workplace collective agreement shift arrangements and your experience.

§Security, responsibility and allowances

Supply needs to run 24 hours a day. That is why the job can involve shift work call-outs and work outside normal hours — typically with allowances under the collective agreement. It is part of having responsibility for infrastructure society cannot do without and something you must factor in when you assess both salary and daily life.

“You learn a trade, while earning your own wages — and you end up with a journeyman's certificate that's in demand when you're done.”