The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was engaged in February 2010 by MEGT to conduct research on the retention of first-year apprentices participating in the MEGT mentoring and social networking program. Sponsored by DEEWR, the Australian Apprentice Retention Pilot Project aims to improve the retention of apprentices in skills shortage trades. The project involves the provision of mentors to support apprentices at three sites: in Queensland (Logan/Ipswich); New South Wales (Western Sydney); and Victoria (Southeast Melbourne). The role of the mentors is to visit the apprentice and maintain ongoing contact through social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. MEGT engaged ACER to conduct an independent study and assist with the effective transfer of the lessons from these pilots into other possible settings. This report presents the findings of the research project.