Uprise Digital partners with Carpentry Australia on the Breakers Program
A campaign designed to help young Australians stay in the trade long enough to build the country.
- Breakers Program
- TAFE Queensland Ashmore
Target
first-year retention
Strategy · Creative · Scripts
The announcement
Supported by the Queensland Department of Trade, Employment and Training.
The Breakers Program officially launched on 18 September at TAFE Queensland Ashmore
Uprise Digital was engaged to develop the campaign strategy, creative direction and scripts. The launch drew national attention, including coverage on 7News and attendance from the Premier.
Carpentry has more unfilled positions than any other role in Australian residential construction. But as Carpentry Australia identified, the sharper problem is not getting people into the trade.
It is keeping them there.
Breakers brings together apprentices, employers, teachers, industry mentors and elite sporting role models—with one specific target: improve first-year apprentice retention by 20 per cent over 12 months.
The brief
Make a 17 year old, halfway through a tough first year, stop scrolling and pay attention.
The approach
Recognition before aspiration
Most trade recruitment marketing sells the destination. We started with what the audience was feeling right now.
Opening line / Campaign film
“I am not going to pretend it is easy.”
Good money, job security, running your own business one day—all true, and all largely irrelevant to someone who cannot see past next week.
Every script opens with recognition rather than aspiration. A junior carpenter names the early mornings, the pay and watching what his mates are doing on the weekend. Only then does the script turn.
The carpenters he looks up to all did exactly this. The difference is they had people around them who helped them see past it.
The program arrives as the answer to a feeling the viewer has already had confirmed—not as a product with a feature list.
Four voices
One message. Four kinds of proof.
A single perspective would not have carried it. The audience needed more than one reason to believe.
01
A junior carpenter
Same age. Same stage. Same experience. A voice that makes the audience feel seen before asking them to act.
02
Jake McArthur
Carpentry Australia speaking directly to apprentices from inside the trade, rather than speaking about them.
03
Alex Rance
The AFL premiership defender connects the people who got him through the hard years to the support Breakers provides.
04
Carpenter + builder
A senior carpenter and builder close the loop with proof of what sits on the other side of a difficult first year.
Cinematic by design
Every script was built cinematically rather than as low-fidelity social content. For an audience being asked to picture a future for themselves, production quality is part of the argument.
What happens next
From one pilot to an industry-wide model
Breakers begins with carpentry apprentices at TAFE Queensland Ashmore, designed as a scalable model with the potential to expand across Queensland before being introduced nationally across other construction trades.
20%
retention target
Measured over
12 months
Beginning with first-year carpentry apprentices.
Most of our work is measured in cost per lead and revenue.
This campaign was measured against something harder: whether young Australians stay in the trade long enough to build the country.
Build the campaign people in your industry actually believe
If you're a construction or trade brand looking for a growth partner who understands the industry from the inside, let's talk.