Only Seven Bricklaying Apprentices in the ACT: What Skilled Migrants Should Know Before Moving

News · 2026-08-24 · 4 min read

Canberra is building at a steady pace, yet the pool of new bricklayers behind that growth is drying up. Consider the figures:

Only seven people are training as bricklayers in the entire ACT region.
The construction workforce has grown by 10 per cent.
Over that same window, apprentice numbers have fallen by 20 per cent.

What remains is a trade carried by a small number of tradespeople, many of them well past the age at which most of their peers are preparing to retire. Industry bodies in the ACT call it a crisis. For a qualified tradesperson deciding where to take their skills, it signals real, lasting demand and relatively few barriers to entry.

Why This Shortage Is Structural

Do not mistake this for a short-term swing in the building cycle. Three separate pressures are adding up.

Apprentice training is tied to a slow sector

Bricklaying apprentices are mostly trained on residential projects. Residential activity in the ACT is currently weak, while commercial and infrastructure work, the territory's light rail expansion among it, keeps labour demand strong. When house building slows, fewer employers sign up for a four-year apprenticeship.

Too many apprentices drop out

According to Geordan Murray of the Housing Industry Association, many more apprentices start the trade than complete it. The work is physically demanding, and apprentices often spend too long labouring rather than learning to use the trowel properly, so they quit before becoming productive on site.

The existing workforce is ageing

On sites such as Daniel Swan's, workers over 40 are standard. Unless trained apprentices or skilled migrants arrive to take their place, that knowledge leaves the industry when they retire.

Now layer the ACT government's pledge of 30,000 new homes by 2030 over these pressures. With seven apprentices in the pipeline, the numbers do not add up.

Anyone Can Lay Bricks There, So Proof Matters

In the ACT, bricklaying is not a licensed occupation. A person can legally work on a residential or commercial site without ever proving they are qualified. Lynne Sheffield, who has 30 years in the industry and founded Quality Training in Construction, has seen the outcome on the sites she visits: inconsistent work from people who were never trained properly.

For the industry that is a quality problem. For a migrant with genuine qualifications and real site experience, it is an advantage, because properly trained bricklayers are scarce and employers know their value. Daniel Swan, who has operated his own bricklaying business in Canberra for over two decades, is not short of work. He is short of reliable hands for the trowel.

Signals to Check Before You Commit

Is the demand long-term? Here it comes from government infrastructure commitments and long-range housing targets, not one project.
Do employers openly admit a skills gap? That usually means quicker hiring, more readiness to sponsor and fewer candidates competing for each placement.
How easy is entry? Low regulatory friction can shorten the time from arrival to first pay, but since no local system screens qualifications for you, you must be able to prove your training and experience clearly.

Be realistic: bricklaying is hard physical work, as apprentices in Canberra will confirm. For someone who already has the skills and the endurance, though, a market this undersupplied is where a skilled migration pathway usually pays off quickest.

The Straight Truth

Canberra's construction boom has exposed a trade that local training cannot keep pace with. That is a problem for the ACT industry and a genuine opening for skilled tradespeople considering Australia. Protect yourself as you pursue it: deal only with real employers and verified information, keep your qualification documents ready, and remember that a genuine employer will never ask you to pay for a job offer. Shortages this deep are uncommon, and they rarely last long.

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