Paul Bidmeade
Paul brings a rare mix of communications expertise and hands-on workforce development experience to his role at Major Training. Since joining Major in April 2026, he manages content, communications and events across the business helping learners, employers and school partners understand what vocational training can do for them.
Before Major, Paul spent several years in employment services with Workskil Australia and Jobs Statewide, coaching job seekers into sustainable work under the Workforce Australia and Job Active programs. That work aimed at connecting people with training pathways, reverse-marketing candidates to employers, and navigating funding systems which ultimately gave him a practical understanding of how vocational education actually plays out for individuals and businesses.
His background in journalism and digital marketing shapes how he writes: clear, useful, and grounded in what real people need to know.
Qualified electrician Byron Nichols spent the weeks before his Capstone Assessment studying hours of theory that would decide whether four years of training had paid off. When it was over, the relief was immediate and well earned. “It feels really, really good. I finally got there after four years,” Byron said. Like a lot of…
For a business that operates seven quarries across Queensland, Hillery Group’s sustained success has been forged from an even greater asset – its people. With five decades of sustained success, Hillery Group’s long-term partnerships have been built on continuous improvement and workforce development that keeps the business operating at its highest level. Nearly half of…
If you like: Working with structural metal Using your hands to build real things Seeing a solid, finished product take shape from raw steel Welding might be right up your alley There is something deeply satisfying about pulling on a welding helmet, striking an arc, and watching raw sparks fly as you fuse heavy steel…
Small and medium-sized electrical businesses hold the key to Australia’s future electrician workforce, training 71 per cent of all electrician apprentices despite facing significant costs and constraints in doing so. A new research paper from Powering Skills Organisation, released in August 2026, shows Australia is short on electricians and that the shortage is set to…
Can you actually get paid while you’re still finishing school, or does the money only start once Year 12 is behind you? A school-based apprentice earns a real, award-set wage from day one, while a full-time student studying for the same years takes home nothing until they graduate. This guide sets out exactly what that…
Build the workforce yourself or let the skills shortage become your biggest operational risk. That was the choice facing NEACH managing director Ryza Garbacz close to a decade ago. He explains why NEACH grew its own tradespeople from the ground up, and how Major Training’s monthly on-site model supports five apprentices as they work towards…
While most of her classmates are counting down the days until schoolies, Ruby is counting down the hours until she can get back onsite. The year 12 student at Mueller College in Rothwell is completing a School Based Apprenticeship, working towards her CPC30220 Certificate III in Carpentry one full day a week through Major Training…
A near miss is an unplanned event that could have caused injuries, illness, or property damage, and didn’t. Someone trips over a trailing cable and stays upright. A tool falls from height and lands where nobody was standing. Near miss reporting is the process of logging those incidents so the hazard behind them gets fixed…
If you search the query “apprenticeship vs traineeship” you’ll typically get a tidy differences table. Seems handy, right? Most of these are pulled from incorrect data, though, and split the two into separate pathways, when in reality Queensland runs them as one system. Our comparison works the other way around. We show you how much…