lol ruffels, a good mate is a second year sparky, went into that after the company he'd done 3 years of an electronics apprenticeship at went broke, he's on about 9 bucks an hour yet does everything a tradies does. Apparently sparkies don't have adult apprentice rates in their award
I did 3 years of an apprenticeship in printing before getting shafted by the company, spent an entire year trying to get another trade type apprenticeship before I landed my current role which sees me back in IT (way more flexible in terms of work options and also less stress than printing).
Trades are really where it's at, but I'd advise against anything manufacturing based like printing, there's less places to work, and most are reducing the manpower required.
I guess it comes down to whether the business wants cheap labour or they actually want to train someone to do the job, that was the main problem I found with trying to get another apprenticeship/traineeship, that they just want douches who barely passed year 10 so they can legally pay them $250 gross a week!
you also lucked out with several guys in here offering to hook you up!