Training contracts

Training contracts are legally binding agreements between you and your apprentice or trainee (and their parent or guardian if they are under 18). Once registered, they include details such as the signatories, commencement date, duration or 'nominal completion' period and qualification details.

Once a training contract is in place, you are obliged to report any circumstances that may affect your training obligations, such as significant training delays, dissolution of your business or dismissal of your apprentice or trainee.

This guide outlines the process for registering a training contract as well as the compulsory reporting requirements that you need to be aware of once your contract is registered.

Register a training contract

1. Write up the contract

Your Apprentice Connect Australia Provider (Provider) will first help you write up the training contract.

It will be signed by:

you, the employer
your apprentice or trainee
their parent or guardian if they are aged under 18.

Training contracts with school students

Before your Provider helps you sign up a school-based apprentice or trainee, you will need approval from the school. You will need to negotiate how work and study will affect the student's school timetable.

Include accurate information in the training contract

All the information on the training contract must be correct and truthful. If a contract has false or misleading information, it will not be registered.

Key dates

Action	Time frame
The training contract must be completed and signed by all parties	within 14 days of the start of the apprenticeship or traineeship
The training contract must be given to the Provider	within 28 days of the start of the apprenticeship or traineeship

2. Lodge the contract

Once the training contract is completed, your Provider will lodge it with us, the department, for registration.

3. Contract is registered

Once the training contract is registered, you will get a letter from us telling you that it has been officially registered.

4. Acknowledgement letter

The acknowledgment letter will have important contract information such as:

registration number
length of probationary period (e.g. 30, 60 or 90 days)
start or 'commencement' date
end or 'nominal completion' date
occupational title (e.g. Business Level IV)
qualification title (e.g. Certificate IV in Business)
contract type (e.g. full-time, part-time or school-based)
name of supervising registered training organisation (SRTO).

5. Financial incentives

You will also receive a letter from your Provider explaining which government incentives you can claim. They will send all relevant claim forms.

Compulsory reporting and training contracts

When you sign a training contract with an apprentice or trainee, you are responsible for reporting certain situations. We refer to these situations as 'notifiable events'.

How to report a 'notifiable event'

Step 1: Notify your Apprentice Connect Australia Provider (Provider), or us, in writing.

Step 2: Notify us within 14 days, depending on the incident.

Sale or dissolution of business

You must notify us when:

you sell or dispose of your business
you dissolve your business partnership
you make changes to your business partnership.

Keeping on an apprentice or trainee after business is sold

If you sell your business and the buyer agrees to keep on your apprentice or trainee, they must let us know in writing.

Step 1: Notify your Provider using Form ATF-041, within 14 days after the sale of business or partial dissolution of the partnership.

Download Form ATF-041: Notification of change of ownership/statutory transfer (sale of business)

Step 2: The change will affect the training plan, so the new owners will need to advise the supervising registered training organisation.

Not keeping on an apprentice or trainee after business is sold

If your business changes hands and the new owners don't want to keep on your apprentice or trainee, they must:

report this to your Apprentice Connect Australia Provider or us, in writing
report this before the business handover happens.

Training delays

Notify us if your apprentice or trainee:

won't or can't finish their training requirements (as listed in their training plan)
needs more time to complete their training.

School-based apprentice or trainee leaves school early

If your school-based apprentice or trainee leaves school early (before finishing Year 12), you will need to change their training contract to reflect a change of working hours from school-based to either part-time or full-time. Once the contract is changed, so will their rate of pay and working conditions.

When your school-based apprentice or trainee leaves before Year 12, you must notify us within 14 days.

Employment ends

Notify us if your apprentice or trainee no longer works for you – regardless of whether they were dismissed or left voluntarily.

Notify us within 14 days.

Application for unfair dismissal

Notify us if your apprentice or trainee has been dismissed and is applying for 'unfair dismissal' through the legal system.

Notify us within 14 days.

Application for reinstatement

Notify us if your apprentice or trainee is applying for 'reinstatement' (wanting to be re-instated to their original position before their training contract was cancelled) after lodging an appeal.

Notify us within 14 days.