How to Succeed in Your Building Apprenticeship: 7 Tips from the Trenches

2 Jul

Day 1 Pre-Trade vs Day 2,221 Practicing Carpenter

The journey from apprentice to qualified carpenter is one of the most rewarding paths in the trades, but it’s also one of the toughest. It demands resilience, discipline, and most importantly — strategy. Having walked that road myself starting over 7 years ago, I know what it takes to not just get signed off, but to thrive and earn the respect that comes with the trade.

Here are 7 powerful lessons I learned the hard way.

1. Your Employer Can Make or Break Your Apprenticeship

Your boss isn’t just your paycheck — they’re also a gatekeeper. They decide what kind of work you’re exposed to, how fast you progress, and when your units get signed off.

Some Advice:

If you aren’t 10 minutes early… you’re late
Don’t pack up tools unless you’re told to or have agreed to a specific time with the Foreman
Offer to help when your Foreman is under pressure with something that will alleviate his/her work load on the job e.g. pickup worksite materials, inductions and toolboxes
Be respectful and proactive both on site and in your progression as an Apprentice

Your goal is to earn trust. Make yourself indispensable — not just useful. Build strong relationships with your Foreman and Project Manager.

Respect and Trust gets sign-offs and earns you dependability for future opportunities.

2. Invest in Your Tools Early — They Pay You Back

One of the handiest decisions I made early in my apprenticeship was gear up before I had to. By my 2nd year, I owned what most 4th-year apprentices expected to own:

Taurus toolbelt with all full set of hand tools, a makita drill set, paslode framing nail gun, brad gun, circular saw, reciprocating saw, angle grinder, planer, sander a full level set and a laser level.

Was it a big financial risk? Yes.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

More tools = more capability = more responsibility. You’ll be taken seriously as someone ready for the next step, or better yet someone who is ready for a company vehicle.

Want to stop being treated like a laborer? Start acting and behaving like a carpenter.

3. Don’t Just Read the BCITO Books — Use Them On Site

BCITO’s or any other ITOs training material isn’t just homework — it’s a field manual. Learn it and use it on site.

In my first year, the BCITO Fundamentals book became a useful tool—not just something to tick off. Every time I knew I’d be jumping into a new task—framing, roofing, or setting out—I’d go through the relevant BCITO book module the night before. If a project involved framing, I studied the set-out and framing section before the works started. Foundations and framing material is where I learned the 3-4-5 rule and how to apply Pythagoras’ Theorem to square up foundations as well as bespoke walls.

If a book mentions a detail you haven’t done yet, ask your Foreman about it. Use the books to guide questions and connect theory with the real world. It also helps generate conversation between you and your Foreman which alternatively helps them to establish “where-you-are” in your apprenticeship from a knowledge standpoint. Whereas your actions on site in practicing what you are studying showcases your ability to apply the material.

Also:

Keep your site journal/study app up to date, take many photos and use the STAR method to communicate with your Training Advisor what you have completed on-site.
Log tasks that matter toward qualification and prove that you have undertaken a specific task to the competence level required from the apprenticeship program.
There is a time for low-skill work but your focus should not be on this for a long period (e.g. cleaning, digging, demolition, setting up barriers)

If you’re stuck doing site prep month after month, it’s time for a conversation — or a new opportunity.

Your apprenticeship is not just labor — it's structured learning.

4. Complete a Module, Then Move On

One of the biggest traps apprentices fall into is staying on the same task for too long. You can’t expect to get signed off on framing, roofing, or cladding if you’ve spent the last six months just fixing gib.

In my first year as an apprentice, I worked for a company that mainly handled house lifting and renovation work on old homes. This meant lots of demolition and site establishment which I became very good at. But good didn’t mean qualified, let alone good at Building. Despite being hired as a carpentry apprentice, I spent six months on tasks that had little to do with the core BCITO modules. While every apprentice needs to learn demolition and site establishment work, these are modules that can be completed in weeks, not months.

Unfortunately, it’s not your employer’s job to manage your progression. This is the major difference between a classroom based qualification and an apprenticeship. In the real world, your employer has a business to run — and not every business factors your learning goals around their day to day.

So if you want to grow, it’s on your aptitude to stay alert of where you are in the process and where you need to go.

You need to ask for the opportunities that will progress your apprenticeship forward and if they are not reciprocated, you as an apprentice need to decide if you might need to seek it elsewhere with the help of your ITO.

Each trade skill/module has to be treated like an evolution or objective that is part of a larger mission:

Learn
Practice
Fail
Record
Assess
Complete
Move on

This is especially important for trades such as roofing or retaining walls, where some general builders don’t have enough volume to support continuos practice. Sometimes you might be better off getting a short placement with a specialist who does this work everyday to really grasp this aspect of the trade.

Your apprenticeship is about exposure, practice and experience — not comfort.

5. Rest and Recovery Are Part of the Job

This trade is brutal on your body. Between early starts, heavy lifting, and constant movement, it's easy to burn out fast — especially if you don't pace yourself.

Your weekends and holidays aren't just for partying — they're for recovery.

Use them to:

Get quality sleep
Hit the gym or do mobility work
Spend time with your family
Record your work from the previous week
Reflect and reset your goals

Treat your body like your most important tool. At the end of the day - it is.

6. Failure Is Part of the Process — Own It, Learn From It

Every apprentice will mess up. I've been there — from cutting costly material 100mm too short, to crashing an all-terrain scissor lift into a multi-million-dollar building. These instances suck. They're humbling. They may even lead you to ask yourself if you should be in the trade.

But here's the reality: failure is part of the apprenticeship/learning process.

You're not just learning to build structures — you're learning to solve problems under pressure, take ownership of your outcomes, and recover when things fall apart.

What separates a good apprentice from a bad one isn't perfection — it's accountability.

When you mess up:

Be honest about it
Think about what went wrong
Put processes in place so that it won't happen again
Ask questions and ask for help
The biggest error is not the error itself — it's failing to learn from it.

You're gonna fail. It's a given. But each failure is a rep that develops your capacity, toughness, and discernment.

The earlier you start owning failure and treating it as feedback, the earlier you will be a proficient tradesperson.

7. Your BCITO Training Advisor is Your Best Ally

Many apprentices make the mistake of relying on their boss to organize assessments.

Your Training Advisor (TA) is your advocate. Build a relationship with them and check in regularly. If you feel ready to be assessed, reach out to them.

Never let someone else control the pace of your career. This is your apprenticeship to own.