Air conditioning and refrigeration

The national qualification describes this work as selecting components, installing, setting up, testing, fault finding, repairing and maintaining refrigeration systems and air conditioning equipment in buildings and premises.

Source, checked 17 October 2026: training.gov.au, UEE32225.

A service day can be a round of sites: a split system that is not cooling, a cool room in a shop, a unit on a roof. You are looking for why it failed, not only replacing a part at random.

Install days are more like construction: setting plant, running pipe and cable, then commissioning it. Many businesses do both. This page does not say how a first year is split between them.

This is a composite sketch so you can picture the work. It is not a diary from one workplace, and it is not a survey result.

The award's ordinary hours are an average of 38 a week. Day workers work Monday to Friday, between 6 am and 6 pm. Work outside ordinary hours is paid at higher rates, which are listed in the pay guide.

Source, checked 17 October 2026: Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award (MA000025).

These are award minimums, not what any employer is sure to pay. Each figure is an hourly rate that applies from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026. From the Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award, which lists refrigeration and air conditioning work as one of its streams. Which award covers you depends on the employer's main business. Check the current pay guide on the Fair Work Ombudsman website before you rely on a figure.

1. 1st year

   $16.39 an hour if you did not finish Year 12. $17.97 an hour if you did.

2. 2nd year

   $19.55 an hour if you did not finish Year 12. $21.13 an hour if you did.

3. 3rd year

   $22.71 an hour.

4. 4th year

   $26.50 an hour.

Apprentice table, started after 1 January 2014, not an adult apprentice. Adult apprentices and apprentices who started before 1 January 2014 have different tables in the pay guide. These apprentice rates already include some allowances, as the pay guide explains. Other allowances can change the total, so read the pay guide for your award.

Once qualified: the award's base rate for an Electrical worker grade 5, which covers a worker with a refrigeration and air conditioning trade certificate, is $29.45 an hour before allowances (award clause 16.2). The pay guide shows a higher figure for this classification because it adds allowances. What a person is paid depends on the employer and any agreement.

Source, checked 17 October 2026: Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide, MA000025, published 7 August 2026; Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award (MA000025).

• Plant is often on a roof, in a ceiling, or in a plant room.
• Those places are hot. Cool rooms are cold, and you still have to work in them.
• Units and condensers are heavy, and the sites change through the day.
• The work mixes electrical checks with the refrigeration system. How much of each an apprentice does is not set out here.

Qualification: Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, code UEE32225. It replaced UEE32220 on 24 March 2025, and training.gov.au lists the two as equivalent.

Length: Queensland's register lists a nominal term of 48 months, which is the length written on the training contract. Other states and territories can differ. School-based apprenticeships are listed there too.

Licence: the qualification meets the training part of the national Refrigerant Handling Licence, which is needed to work on equipment that could release fluorocarbon refrigerant. It says other licence conditions can apply in some jurisdictions, so check your state or territory.

Pre-apprenticeships are not covered on this page.

Source, checked 17 October 2026: training.gov.au, UEE32225; Queensland Training Information Service, UEE32225.

Not from a survey. This is a first draft for review. Replace it with sourced comments, or remove it.

• Hot roof spaces and plant rooms.
• Weekend call-outs when a cool room or air conditioner fails.
• Driving between jobs for a lot of the day.
• The mix of dirt, oil, and tight plant rooms.