After being named school-based apprentice of the year for the Illawarra and South East NSW region in 2018, being a finalist at the prestigious 2018 NSW Training Awards in September and attending the Honeywell Engineering Summer School, Tom was offered a position with Merimbula Aircraft Maintenance as an apprentice aircraft maintenance engineer.

One week after the HSC exams had finished Tom started his four-year apprenticeship with the aim of getting his certificate IV in aero skills, mechancial.

Not surprisingly training facilities for this course are sparsely located being either a four-hour drive to Sale or a seven-hour drive to Padstow, south west Sydney.

Rex Koerbin of Merimbula Aircraft Maintenance said he wanted to send Tom to Sale because not only was it a shorter drive, accommodation for the block release courses of two to three weeks each would be cheaper. Sale also helps to co-ordinate accommodation for students, something Padstow does not undertake.

Mr Koerbin said that over the years he had trained four apprentices and they had attended Padstow and Sale.

"It is just logical to do the training at Sale; it's closer and the school is actually next to the airfield," he said.

As an Australian apprentice, undertaking an Australia-wide recognised certificate for a national skills shortage career, Mr Koerbin didn't see a problem sending an apprentice to another state, particularly as he had done so previously.

But not this time, it seems.

Mr Koerbin was told that the Victorian training organisation, Federation Training, had not re-registered with the NSW Smart and Skilled initiative and therefore wasn't legible for funding to cover a NSW apprentice.

However Mr Koerbin wasn't told about the issues until quite late on and then had to start looking at the only other option, Padstow.

"It looks like Tom's got no choice but to attend Padstow but when we enquired we were told the course had started in March.

"This trade is recognised as being in dire need in Australia, it shouldn't be this hard," Mr Koerbin said.

READ: Education: it really shouldn't be this hard

He was then told that there was a correspondence course starting in May.

"But apprentices need to be in a facility with workshops because the skills learnt at school then add on to what is being taught on the job. You don't get the same level of education through a correspondence course," Mr Koerbin said.

"Apprentice plumbers go to Canberra, so there's not a problem with cross border arrangements there. What on earth is going on, why is this so hard and why is there so much red tape," he added.

In meantime Tom is waiting to see whether he can get exemptions from his two-year school-based apprenticeship at Merimbula Engineering when he was at Eden Marine High School and join the Padstow TAFE.

Asked about his apprenticeship Tom said he was loving it.

"It's going really well. I was looking forward to going to Sale, it would be much better than travelling to Sydney," he said.

Federation Training has been asked why the organisation has not re-registered with the NSW government Smart and Skilled initiative.

A spokesman for Federation Training said the Institute was well aware of the situation and the challenges of RTO (Regional Training Organisations) registration across state borders.

"We will be working co-operatively with our NSW colleagues and state education department officials to determine what can be done in situations like this," the spokesman said.