Window Tinting Training in Australia: Every Option Compared

Every Window Tinting Training Option in Australia, Compared Honestly

Our instructor Alex has tinted cars professionally since 2012 and has worked on more than 15,000 of them. Before he filmed our online course, he trained more than 230 students in person through five-day hands-on workshops.

We run one of the courses compared below, so we have an obvious interest. That’s why every price, duration and location for the other providers comes from their own websites, checked on 12 October 2026, and why we say plainly where an in-person course does something an online one can’t.

This guide covers online courses, the in-person schools we could verify, TAFE and formal qualifications, a side-by-side table and a simple way to decide.

Option 1: Online Training

Window Tint Training Institute (WTTI)

The Window Tint Training Institute is an Australian online institute, operated by Lovell Digital Properties Pty Ltd from Adelaide. The course went online in 2024, and more than a hundred Australians have enrolled since then. It’s one course: a set of step-by-step video lessons that take you from your first tool to tinting every window of a car.

The online lessons follow the same order Alex taught in his in-person workshops. In-person training has a geography problem: if you don’t live near a trainer, you pay for travel and accommodation on top of the course fee. Learning online removes that.

The price is $129.95 AUD, paid once.

What’s Covered

The lessons start with tools, slip solution and how to choose film, then work through each window of a car:

• Cleaning the glass and cutting a pattern
• Back doors and front doors
• Sedan and hatchback rear windows, including heat shrinking film to fit curved glass
• Quarter windows
• Both top-loading and bottom-loading methods

You can see the full lesson list before you buy, and eight of the lessons are free to watch in our guide on how to tint car windows.

How the Certificate Works

When you’ve practised and feel ready, you film yourself tinting every window of a full car, upload the video to Google Drive or YouTube as unlisted or private, and email us the link. We assess the work and send you feedback, and once it’s approved, you receive a printable certificate issued by the Window Tint Training Institute.

Key Advantages

• Available anywhere in Australia: no travel and no accommodation.
• Lifetime access: rewatch any lesson as often as you need. Starting a tricky rear screen tomorrow? Rewatch that lesson tonight.
• Self-paced: watch on a phone, tablet or computer, around your job.
• Seven-day refund: if the course isn’t right for you, you can ask for a full refund within seven days of buying it.
• One payment: $129.95 AUD, with no subscription.

The Limitation

No online course can stand beside you and correct your squeegee angle in real time. You learn by watching, then practising on your own cars, and when you get stuck you rewatch rather than ask. Some people learn better with a trainer in the room, and for them the in-person options below are worth the extra cost.

Melbourne Tinting Academy (Online)

Melbourne Tinting Academy, which also runs the in-person course below, sells an online course for $350 with lifetime access. It describes the online course as great for revisiting techniques at your own pace, accessible from anywhere.

Option 2: In-Person Training Schools

In-person training exists, and experienced operators run it. If you live near one, have the budget and learn better with a trainer beside you, these are legitimate options. Everything below comes from each provider’s own website, checked on 12 October 2026. Prices change, so confirm before you book. This isn’t an exhaustive list: it covers the providers whose details we could verify.

The Aussie Trainer (Graeme Doolan)

Cost: from $1,795 AUD per person, plus GST | Duration: 2 days | Location: says it travels to each state

Graeme Doolan lists 30 years in window tint, PPF and vinyl wrap and more than 1,500 installers trained. He’s a trainer for LLumar and The Wrap Institute, and lists 3M Australia credentials for window tinting among his certifications. His site says the training schedule comes to each state multiple times every year. Its FAQ says participants receive a certification on completing a course, and that it offers online as well as in-person training, though the site doesn’t list an online tinting course or price. He also runs flat glass window tinting training (from $1,295 plus GST), vinyl wrap training (from $1,995 plus GST) and PPF training (from $2,795 plus GST), and notes that prices can change depending on schedule.

The honest comparison: from $1,795 plus GST against $129.95 online. For the difference, you get two days with a very experienced trainer in person. Whether that’s worth it depends on how you learn and what your budget looks like. The travelling schedule also gives this option the widest reach of the in-person courses here.

Melbourne Tinting Academy (Damian)

Cost: $1,500 (1 day) or $2,500 (2 days) | Format: 1-on-1 | Location: Lynbrook, VIC, or at your place within metro Melbourne

Melbourne Tinting Academy runs one-on-one training, led by its lead trainer Damian, from its facility in Lynbrook, about 43 km south-east of the Melbourne CBD, on scheduled days from Friday to Sunday. It can also come to you within the Melbourne metro area if you have a vacant garage or suitable space (a surcharge may apply), but it doesn’t travel interstate. Both courses include a certificate of completion, an instruction guide and a wholesale tint and tools list, and the two-day course adds free online support.

The one-on-one format is a genuine advantage: you’re not competing with other students for the trainer’s attention. The one-day course is the cheapest in-person car tinting course we found.

The Tint School (Boyd Hunter)

Cost: $2,500 plus GST ($2,750 including GST) | Duration: 2 days | Location: Penrith, NSW, with classes in other states listed on its site

The Tint School’s two-day course runs from 8am to 3pm and is about 10% knowledge and 90% applying film and practising. Classes are three to four students, with another trainer added when there are more than four. Students take home two rolls of Solar Armor carbon film and a tool kit, which offsets part of the cost, lunch is provided on both days, and you receive the school’s certificate on completing and passing the course. Boyd Hunter trains in the USA and Australia. A friend who books with you gets 50% off. Its course enquiry form is an XPEL form, and its FAQ names film distributor PFD Distribution as its partner, a business whose website says it is now part of XPEL Australia.

Its homepage says classes run in Sydney, Brisbane and Victoria, which gives it a broader reach than a single workshop.

Exclusive Tint Detailing (George)

Cost: $2,750, paid upfront | Duration: 2 days | Locations: Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Every course is personally taught by George, who the business says has more than 25 years of industry experience, either one-on-one or in small groups. Its Brisbane page says students are tinting actual cars within the first few hours rather than practice boards, and the business also offers an advanced course covering pricing, quoting and running a tinting business. Working on real cars is a real-world advantage. Full payment is required upfront to secure a place, and the site doesn’t say whether the price includes GST.

Gold Auto Boutique

Cost: price on application | Duration: 3 to 7 days | Location: Blacktown, NSW

Gold Auto Boutique trains students in its own working customisation shop in western Sydney, in small groups, with all tools and materials provided. The course length depends on your skill level and learning pace, and you receive a certificate on completion. The website doesn’t publish a price, so you’ll need to ask for a quote.

No Longer Listed

Earlier versions of this guide included Tint Academy Australia in Springvale, VIC. Its website no longer loads (checked 12 October 2026), so we couldn’t confirm a current course or price, and we’ve left it out of the table.

Option 3: TAFE and Formal Education

Is there a TAFE course in window tinting? Not as a course of its own, as far as we could find.

When we checked on 12 October 2026, car tinting appeared on the national training register, training.gov.au, as a single elective unit, AURVTG006 Apply vehicle window tinting, in the Certificate II in Automotive Body Repair Technology (AUR20920). That’s a broader body repair qualification, so tinting is a small part of it. TAFE NSW lists the unit among the 69 specialty units of that certificate, but notes that not all specialty units are offered at every location. Automotive glazing is mostly glass work. TAFE NSW’s automotive glazing page says the course can teach you to remove and apply window tints, but the tinting unit isn’t one of that qualification’s listed units: training.gov.au lists AURVTG006 only in the Certificate II in Automotive Body Repair Technology, and the Certificate III lets a student add up to six units from a Certificate II or above, so ask the campus whether tinting can be one of them. A TAFE NSW short course in automotive window tinting that used to be listed now shows “Course not found”, and the ACT’s training register shows a vehicle tinting stream of the Certificate II, run as a traineeship, with an expired status.

Twelve registered training organisations, including five TAFEs, are approved to deliver the unit, which doesn’t mean they currently run it. A stand-alone window tinting qualification did exist from 1999 to 2005, but it has since been deleted. Our guide to TAFE window tinting courses covers the options in more detail.

WFAANZ (the Window Film Association of Australia and New Zealand) is the peak industry body for window film. It publishes visual quality standards for automotive and architectural film and offers training to its members, but it’s an industry association rather than a training school.

Side-by-Side Comparison

All details come from each provider’s own website, checked on 12 October 2026.

Which Option Is Right for You?

Answer these questions and the right choice usually becomes clear.

Is budget a factor?

For most people starting a new trade, it is. At $129.95, our course costs a small fraction of the cheapest in-person car tinting course we found ($1,500 for one day), and Melbourne Tinting Academy’s online course is $350. The money you don’t spend on training can go on tools and film to practise with.

Are you based outside NSW, Victoria and Queensland?

Then a local in-person school is unlikely. Check whether a travelling trainer is coming to your state; otherwise in-person training means flights and accommodation on top of the course fee. Online training works from anywhere.

Do you want to be able to rewatch and learn at your own pace?

Online courses with lifetime access let you rewatch the heat shrinking lesson before a tricky curved rear screen next year. Both online options in the table offer lifetime access. An in-person course ends when you drive home, although some offer follow-up support.

Are you already working full-time and can’t take two days off?

Online courses are self-paced. Study an hour tonight, revisit the front door lesson on Saturday morning and start practising on the weekend. Some in-person trainers run weekend days (Melbourne Tinting Academy schedules Friday to Sunday), so check their calendars too.

Do you want hands-on practice from day one?

This is where in-person courses are strongest: supervised practice with a trainer correcting you as you go and, in some courses, work on real cars. After any course, though, you go home and keep practising on your own. Nobody becomes a competent tinter in two days, whoever is teaching. The real skill development happens in the weeks and months of practice afterwards, whichever way you learn.

The scenario where in-person makes more sense

You have $1,500 to $2,750 to spend. You live near a trainer, or one is coming to your state. And you genuinely learn better with a person physically in the room. If all three are true, in-person training is a legitimate choice, and the trainers listed here are experienced operators.

If even one of those doesn’t apply, online training is the practical starting point.

What Can You Actually Earn as a Tinter?

Earnings are usually what’s behind the decision to get trained. SEEK’s salary guide for tinters, built from the salary ranges employers put in their job ads, showed a median full-time salary of $80,500 when we checked on 12 October 2026. Self-employed income depends on your prices, bookings and costs, and our article on how much window tinters make in Australia sets those out. For the routes into a job in a tint shop, see our guide on how to become a window tinter.

If you want the full picture of building a tinting business from the ground up, read our guide on how to start a window tinting business in Australia alongside this one.

Our Final Word

We built the online course because geography was stopping people from getting proper training. Travelling interstate for a workshop adds flights and accommodation to the course fee, and that puts in-person training out of reach for a lot of people.

The online course is our answer: step-by-step video lessons on every window of a car, for $129.95 AUD, with lifetime access, a certificate after a video assessment and a seven-day refund.

The in-person trainers listed here are experienced at what they do. If you live near one, want that hands-on experience and have the budget, go for it. For everyone else, an online course is a sensible, low-cost place to start, and you can always add in-person training later.