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Call for fast track to trades
Amanda Hodge and Annabelle McDonald
March 08, 2005
EMPLOYERS are blaming the lack of skilled tradespeople in Australia on an inflexible apprenticeship system that demands four years" training on low wages.
They also say the time apprentices are required to spend off the work site in courses such as TAFE – in many cases two days a week – makes hiring them more trouble than it is worth.
Industry groups are pushing for shorter apprentice schemes to get workers qualified and on to full salaries more quickly and to reduce the high apprentice ；-out rate.
The Master Builders Association said yesterday that businesses with contract demands and deadlines could not always afford to have apprentices attend compulsory off-the-job training in block times.
But there was little flexibility in those training hours.
"TAFE has served us well over the years but I think the market now demands greater flexibility within training programs and delivery of training at all hours," MBA national training director Denis Wilson said.
John Howard"s promised 24 new technical colleges would help ease that problem.
But union intransigence on the traditional broad four-year apprenticeship scheme was also hampering both employers and aspiring apprentices.
Brett Kissun, 22, admits it took steely determination to make it through his four-year apprenticeship on a net income of only $180 a week in his first year.
"For the first 2 1/2 years, I had to work two jobs. I spent the week at the workshop and on the weekend I worked at a hardware shop. I was earning more money at the shop than I was at the apprenticeship," Mr Kissun said.
In his year, almost half his fellow apprentice mechanics ；ped out.
Apprentice numbers have shot up in recent years.
From a low of 150,000 in 1997 they climbed to almost 400,000 last year on the back of a range of new accredited courses, part-time apprenticeships and traineeships for older workers.
Apprenticeships in traditional trades where skills shortages were most acute have risen 26 per cent in the past 12 months.
As the peak body for one of the "less fashionable" trades, the Airconditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association acknowledges the growth in apprenticeships is directly related to industry willingness to take them on.
In the past few years it has been encouraging its members to do just that.
"But it"s a disincentive that they have to take on someone for four years, because contracts don"t last that long," executive director Norm Argent said.
Now that the industry is starting to take on more apprentices, finding TAFE places for the new recruits is proving equally problematic.
The Prime Minister yesterday blamed state governments for raising TAFE fees by up to 300 per cent.
The Opposition countered by accusing Mr Howard of starving TAFE colleges of funds.
NSW TAFE deputy director-general Robin Shreeve said the system was doing the best it could to accommodate industry calls for flexibility against increasingly tight budget restraints.
Additional reporting: Elizabeth Colman
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