Another contracted body performing a public function, alongside employment services providers, energy retailers and private certifiers. The pattern is now common enough in this database to be worth naming: much of what the Commonwealth does to individuals, it does through someone it has contracted.

The incentive architecture this body administers is layered. Under the Key Apprenticeship Program, an apprenticeship in a priority sector can attract up to $15,000 — $10,000 to the apprentice and $5,000 to the employer — for commencements from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. Priority occupations outside KAP attract $5,000, split $2,500 each. Support loans of up to $25,983 are available for 2025-26, a Living Away From Home Allowance pays up to $120 a week in the first year, and Disability Wage Support pays $216.07 a week.

The 2024 Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System found that barriers in the system have contributed to declining commencements and completions since 2012.

The structural observation this database can add is about when the money moves. Incentives are weighted toward commencement and paid in instalments, and the attrition is concentrated at the start: 17.2 per cent of trade apprentices in the 2020 commencing cohort left within the first year. See The incentives are spread over four years and the losses are in the first one.