Trade vs uni: the honest numbers

Neither road wins outright — and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. On the government's 2025 Occupation Shortage List, apprenticeship-level trades are the single most in-demand tier of the workforce (44% in shortage), degree-level occupations aren't far behind (34%), a trade means earning from day one, and a degree means a higher typical ceiling in many fields. Here's the full, honest picture.

The numbers

Demand, by qualification tier. Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) assigns every occupation a skill level: 1 means a bachelor degree or higher; 3 means a Certificate III/IV, typically through an apprenticeship. On the 2025 Occupation Shortage List (released October 2025):

That's JSA's data; the tiering into "trade vs uni" framing is our read. The headline: the apprenticeship tier has the highest shortage rate in the workforce, and the degree tier is also well above average. Demand is real on both roads — it's the middle and entry tiers where it thins out.

The uni road, measured. The 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey (QILT, national report published September 2025) found undergraduates in full-time work earned a median $75,000 a year, and 74.0% of new graduates were in full-time employment four to six months after finishing — down from 79.0% the year before as the job market cooled.

The debt side. Australians in their 20s with a HELP debt owed an average of $30,763 in 2022–23 (Australia Institute analysis of ATO data) — up from about $12,600 in 2005–06. The government cut all student debts by 20% in 2025, which helps, but a degree still typically means starting working life tens of thousands behind.

The trade road. An apprentice earns a legal award wage from the first day, rising each year of the apprenticeship — rates are set by industry awards (see the Fair Work Ombudsman). Apprentice pay starts low, no sugar-coating that. But it's income, not debt, while you qualify.

What we're deliberately not telling you: a single "average tradie salary." We don't quote qualified-trade earnings figures until we can verify them per-occupation from official sources — that data is coming to Workworthy from the government's occupation profiles. Any site quoting one big juicy number for "tradies" without a source is guessing.

The comparison nobody frames honestly

Four years in, roughly age 22:

• The apprentice: qualified, four years of paid work behind them, no student debt, in an occupation with a 44% chance of being rated in shortage — and if it's a construction, electrical or automotive trade, more like a certainty on recent lists.
• The graduate: degree in hand, a median $75,000 if they're among the 74% in full-time work, and a debt around $30k on recent averages.

From there the roads diverge on things data measures badly: degrees open some rooms that certificates don't; trades open a licensed-business path most graduates never get. Plenty of electricians end up employing graduates. Plenty of engineers out-earn every tradie they know. Both are true.

Our read

Match the road to the kid, not to the stigma. If your teenager is drawn to hands-on work, the demand data says a trade is not "settling" — it's the tightest part of the labour market, paid from day one, debt-free. That's not a fallback. That's a good bet. If they're drawn to medicine, engineering or teaching — all in shortage too — uni is exactly the right call. What the numbers really retire is the idea that university is the only respectable road.

Browse what's actually in demand — filterable by training level — at /occupations.

What this doesn't tell you

Shortage ratings measure how hard employers found jobs to fill in 2025 — not lifetime earnings, job satisfaction or where the market sits in 2040. The graduate salary figure is a median for those in full-time work, four to six months out — early-career, not forever. And skill level is indicative: plenty of people in skill-level-1 jobs got there without degrees, and vice versa. Use the numbers to retire myths, not to script a life.

FAQ

Do tradies really earn more than uni graduates?

Sometimes, and honestly: it depends on the trade, the degree, and the decade of a career. New graduates in full-time work had a median salary of $75,000 in the 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey. Verified per-trade earnings need per-occupation data, which we don't quote until we can source it properly. What's certain: apprentices earn during training while students accrue debt — the two roads price the same four years very differently.

Is it harder to get a job with a trade or a degree?

The 2025 shortage data says apprenticeship-level trades are the tightest tier of the workforce — 44.4% of skill level 3 occupations in national shortage versus 33.5% for degree-level occupations. Both beat the all-occupations average of 29.8%. Neither road looks like a jobs dead-end in this data.

How much HECS debt does the average student have?

Australians in their 20s with a HELP debt owed an average of $30,763 in 2022–23 (Australia Institute, from ATO data), before the government's one-off 20% reduction legislated in 2025.

Can my kid do both — trade first, uni later?

Yes, and it's more common than the "choose one forever" framing suggests. A completed trade qualification plus work experience can support mature-age or portfolio entry to university later, while a trade licence remains a fallback that a degree never expires into. We'd rather you see them as two roads that can join up than a fork in the road.