Why Australia Needs a Water Industry Apprenticeship - Lessons from Fiji New
Date: 13-Feb-2026
At a recent Pacific Water Knowledge Exchange webinar hosted by the Australian Water Association (AWA) and the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association, our Water Skills Partnership Manager Sarah Henry joined Talei Ligairi, Head of Governance and HR at the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF), to discuss a topic that cuts to the heart of our industry’s future: Growing the water workforce - apprenticeships that work in the Pacific. The message was clear: apprenticeships can build, professionalise and retain the frontline capability our utilities depend on.
Australia has no trade equivalent apprenticeship pathway for water operations. That gap is costing us - especially in regional and remote communities where operational resilience hinges on practical, long term skill development and knowledge transfer.
Our joint call to the Australian Government
In September 2025, qldwater, the NSW Water Directorate, the Water Industry Operations Association of Australia (WIOA) and Water Research Australia issued a joint statement to the Minister for Skills and Training calling for a feasibility study into a water industry apprenticeship. We asked for a rigorous, evidence based process, mirroring the approach used in agriculture, to test if trade recognition and a three year apprenticeship pathway would strengthen attraction, retention, safety, and long term workforce sustainability in our sector.
At the same time, BuildSkills Australia (the Jobs and Skills Council responsible for the construction, property and water industries) commenced work on a 10 year Water Sector Workforce Roadmap. While this is welcome, it does not yet include a commitment to an apprenticeship feasibility study - the very question that could unlock a durable, nationally consistent skills pipeline for operators.
We are asking for something pragmatic and proven: test the case, transparently, and let the evidence speak, just as was done for the agriculture sector throughSkills Insight’s Ag Trade Apprenticeship Feasibility Report and associated guidance on recognising new apprenticeships across jurisdictions.
What we heard from Fiji: an apprenticeship model that works
Talei Ligairi set out WAF’s dual track strategy:
- Apprenticeships to grow local talent; and
- Knowledge management to capture and transfer critical tacit know how.
Pacific utilities face familiar headwinds: skills shortages, an ageing workforce, brain drain to higher paying markets, the need for succession planning and diversity, and the imperative to retain institutional knowledge. WAF responded by treating people as strategic assets and building a structured, legally recognised pathway that attracts, trains and keeps emerging operators.
How it works in practice (WAF model highlights):
- Tripartite agreements between WAF, Fiji National University (FNU) via its National Training & Productivity Centre (NTPC), and apprentices who are paid for three years including tuition. Target trades include plumbing & sheetmetal, electrical & electronics, welding, plant & maintenance, carpentry, fitter/machinist.
- Active outreach to schools and fairs, spotlighting women in technical roles.
- Hands on learning from day one: apprentices spend significant time on tools with weekly supervisor sessions and rotations across treatment, networks, preventative maintenance and asset operations.
- Scale and inclusion: 84 apprentices in the first intake (56 men, 28 women); 200+ candidates tested for the second intake (on boarding scheduled March 2026).
- Transition plan: graduates step into operator, service technician or trade specialist roles with clear progression to technical officer, supervisor and team leader pathways.
These elements are embedded in Fiji’s broader apprenticeship settings (NTPC at FNU manages national apprenticeship frameworks), and WAF continues to recruit and test cohorts through public calls and outreach - evidence you can see in their apprenticeship application materials and updates.
Knowledge retention matters: WAF mapped critical roles and is methodically capturing tacit knowledge (e.g. field asset condition, O&M insights) while integrating it into GIS/SCADA and structured learning (including a future Pacific Water School). This is exactly the blend of apprenticeship + knowledge systems Australia needs to emulate, at scale.
Why Australia is falling short (for now)
Sarah Henry outlined the Queensland reality:
- Fragmentation and scale: Each council operates its own systems, budgets, plants and networks across vast distances - training can’t be cookie cutter.
- Competition for skills: Our operators lose out to higher visibility “glamour trades” with superior pay and clear trade recognition.
- Low visibility and undervaluation: The complexity and safety profile of water operations remain under recognised, undermining attraction and retention.
- System hurdles: To secure a declared apprenticeship pathway, Australia must prove the job involves 3–4 years of structured workplace learning, a sufficient volume of learning (e.g. ≥21 units of competency), a clear risk profile, and jurisdictional recognition - all hard but solvable challenges with a proper feasibility process. Guidance already exists in the national system on how apprenticeships are recognised across states and territories.
Our joint statement spells out the evidence approach: Use Jobs and Skills Australia labour data, completions data, utility workforce inputs, national consultations, qualification scenario testing, RTO capacity analysis, and a state by state recognition roadmap to decide if a three year, 21 unit water apprenticeship is warranted and how it should be delivered.
Agriculture just showed the way. Skills Insight’s Ag Trade Apprenticeship Feasibility Report used literature reviews, national surveys, workshops, employer interviews and qualification prototyping to test the case for a trade apprenticeship, culminating in clear steps to implement and secure multi jurisdictional recognition. That’s the template we’re asking the Australian Government and BuildSkills to apply to water operations.
What we need now
Despite strong sector advocacy, there is still no commitment to commission a water apprenticeship feasibility study. BuildSkills’ Water Workforce Roadmap is underway, but a roadmap that omits serious consideration of trade recognition risks missing the single most powerful lever to stabilise and grow our frontline capability.
Our ask remains unchanged: Commission and fund a national feasibility study into a Water Industry Apprenticeship, drawing on the rigorous agricultural methodology. This is not about replacing traineeships or existing products, it’s about testing, transparently and with evidence, whether trade status and a three year apprenticeship will deliver better safety, professionalism, completion, mobility and equity outcomes for our workforce.
Every week we wait, we lose people and knowledge. An apprenticeship feasibility study will not fix everything, but it is the necessary first step to test a pathway that could finally match training, recognition and rewards to the complexity of the work our operators deliver.
Fiji shows what’s possible when apprenticeships and knowledge systems pull together. Australia can adapt that success to our context - if we have the courage to test it properly.
Add your voice
Utilities wishing to endorse the feasibility study can contact Sarah Henry, Water Skills Partnership Manager (shenry@qldwater.com.au) and we’ll coordinate the next steps with our partners across NSW Water Directorate, WIOA and WaterRA.
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