VerifiedA millwright is a dual trade: mechanical and electrical. You install, maintain and repair machinery and you work on the control and drive systems that run it. That is why the apprenticeship is longer than a single trade and why millwrights are consistently among the best-paid artisans in the country.
If you are choosing between this and fitting and turning, the difference is the electrical half. It is harder, it takes longer, and it is what the money is for.
The electrical half
Holding a millwright trade certificate does not automatically allow you to issue an electrical certificate of compliance. Under the Electrical Installation Regulations that is reserved for a registered person, and registration is a separate application to the Department of Employment and Labour. Our electrician bursaries page sets out the three registration categories and how they work.
Ask this before you sign an apprenticeship contract: does the employer intend to support you towards registration as a registered person afterwards, and will the work you do count as the practical experience the chief inspector requires? Many millwrights find out too late that it does not.
Where the trade sits
Millwrighting falls under the merSETA metal and engineering chamber, and under the MQA at a mine. The trade test route is on our artisan bursaries page.
Bursaries that fund millwrighting
- Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA)
- merSETA
- Komatsu, the mining equipment manufacturer
- Gibela
- Jindal Africa
- Westfalia Fruit
- Siza Water
- Silulumanzi
- Thebe Foundation Dr EJ Mabuza Scholarship
- Bridgestone
- Eastern Cape Department of Education
Municipal schemes fund trades for residents: City of Cape Town, Cape Winelands District Municipality, Ndwedwe Local Municipality.
See also our fitter and turner bursaries and electrician bursaries pages.