Federal Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles decided to attend Rosanna Heating & Cooling job site this winter, not for a ribbon-cutting, but to talk to the people actually doing the work. The visit was part of a wider push from Canberra to get more young Victorians looking at a trade career, and heating and cooling apprenticeships were exactly the kind of pathway the government wanted in the room.
That’s not a small thing for a Heidelberg West business with more than 80 years in the ground. Rosanna Heating & Cooling has been training apprentices since long before “skills shortage” was a headline, and the visit put a spotlight on something the team already knew. Trade pathways are a genuinely strong option for young people weighing up their next step, and there’s real money behind that choice right now.
What the Key Apprenticeship Program Actually Pays
Eligible apprentices in housing construction or clean energy and energy efficiency trades can receive up to $10,000 across their apprenticeship, paid in five instalments at six, twelve, twenty-four and thirty-six months, plus a final payment on completion. Employers aren’t left out either. A business taking on an eligible apprentice can claim up to $5,000 in that first year, which goes some way toward covering the slower, more expensive early stages of training someone up.
For a heating and cooling apprentice, that timeline actually fits the shape of the trade. The first year is mostly watching, lifting, and learning where things go. Real competency, the kind that lets someone diagnose a fault on a ducted system without a supervisor standing over them, tends to show up closer to year three. A payment schedule stretched across four years rewards sticking with it, not just showing up on day one.
The Key Apprenticeship Program has already supported more than 32,000 new apprentice tradies into housing construction roles nationally, with over 11,000 commencing within its first six months.
Why a Minister Chose This Job Site
Winter is when a business like Rosanna feels the apprenticeship conversation most directly. Heating calls spike, teams stretch, and the gap between the tradespeople available and the tradespeople needed gets obvious fast. Giles’s visit wasn’t random. Housing construction and clean energy trades sit at the centre of two national priorities right now: building more homes and shifting toward more energy-efficient systems. Heating and cooling work touches both.
It’s also a chance to hear from people who’d otherwise just be numbers in a press release. An apprentice on the tools can explain what six months into a trade actually
feels like far better than a policy document can. That’s a large part of why these visits happen on real job sites rather than in a briefing room somewhere in Canberra.
What This Means If You’re Weighing Up a Trade
Housing construction and clean energy roles get first call on the current incentive, and heating and cooling apprenticeships sit squarely inside that bracket given how much of the job now involves energy-efficient systems and rebate-eligible installs. Carpenters, plumbers and electricians have made up the bulk of commencements nationally so far. The pathway is proven. It isn’t a new or untested scheme dressed up for a press release.
Rosanna Heating & Cooling runs eight installation teams across Melbourne’s north and north-east, which means there’s usually a seat somewhere for someone willing to learn the trade properly. Getting a foot in the door with a business that’s been training apprentices since well before any government incentive existed counts for something too.
If you’re weighing up a trade career, or you know someone who is, give the Rosanna Heating & Cooling team a call on 03 9459 6700 and ask what a heating and cooling apprenticeship there actually looks like day to day.