Salary and conditions as an apprentice and skilled worker

One of the big advantages of a vocational education is that you earn money while you learn. As a process operator apprentice, you are employed by a 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.

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 yet finding an apprenticeship 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.

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 the process and industrial sector typically 3F). The agreement sets minimum rates for apprentices and they are graduated: the salary increases as you advance in your education.

• 01Wages increase in line with how far you are in the course
• 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

If you get part of your training at the school's apprenticeship center instead of with an employer, you don't get trainee wages, but a school training allowance. It is usually lower than a regular trainee wage. It is help that keeps you going while you keep looking for a company agreement — not a permanent solution.

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 process operator you are sought after because industry needs people who both can run modern production plants and keep them running. The actual pay depends on workplace collective agreement shift arrangements and your experience.

Much process production runs in multiple shifts — some places around the clock, because the facilities cannot easily be stopped and started again. Therefore, the job may involve shift work, evening and night work and weekend shifts, typically with supplements according to the collective agreement. It is part of working in a profession where processes must run stably, and something you should factor in when assessing both wages 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.”