A drive unit includes a charging unit which charges an opening/closing control terminal of a switching element to switch a drive state. The switching element includes a sensing terminal which outputs a minute current having a correlation with current flowing between input and output terminals of the switching element. The sensing terminal and either of the output terminal or a member having a potential equal to that of the output terminal are connected via a sensing resistor. The drive unit further includes an active gate control unit which changes a charge rate based on comparison of sensing voltage, which is a potential difference across the sensing resistor, or a rate of change of the sensing voltage with a specified value. The specified value is set based on individual-difference information of the switching element which indicates a characteristic, which affects the sensing voltage, when the drive state is switched.