VET
The chamber is not reluctant to claim that policy settings and cuts to government incentive schemes are directly linked to the decline in apprenticeship starts.“ The previous government,” it says,“ oversaw changes to apprenticeship policy and cuts in employer incentives that led to huge drops in the numbers of young people starting an apprenticeship, with 10,000 fewer under-19s starting an apprenticeship in the first three months of 2013 than in the same period in 2012.”
The statement calls on the new Coalition government to work closely with employers to develop plans for jobs growth and combat youth unemployment to“ get the apprenticeship system back on track”.
“ One of the fundamental building blocks of skilled employment and a strong labour market, the apprenticeship, has been neglected by Government,” said the ACCI statement. The apprenticeship area needs to be revived,“ so we do not create a lost generation of Australian who missed out on opportunities to develop skills that enable them to secure sustainable employment.”
In a subsequent interview with Campus Review, ACCI director of employment, education and training Jenny Lambert developed the theme that Australia is at risk of creating a lost generation:“ We know from other evidence that young people who disengage at such an early point in their life post-school find it increasingly difficult to re-engage. It’ s a worry that we may lose contact with a lot of those people.”
The last thing Australia needs is a lost generation of young people, given the ageing Australian workforce.“ We know from the population statistics that Australia needs to do a lot to increase its participation rates,” she says.“ We’ re below international standards. And this particular figure of 27 per cent [ of those who are 17 to 24 who are not in full-time study or work ] is just part of that total picture, and Australia needs to do more to improve it.”
Lambert’ s concerns extend beyond the drop in the number of apprentices to the similar reduction in the number of people undertaking apprenticeships or traineeships in non-trade fields such as business administration or retail sales.
“ It’ s just as important for the economy to have highly skilled waiters and shop assistants and business administration staff as it is to have plumbers and the like,” she says.“ Quite often the only difference between the two is that one requires a licence.
“ If you take the broader view that skills development is about increasing productivity, [ including in ] the very highly labour-intensive growing industries in the service sector, [ for example ] in financial services, administration roles, in hospitality or retail, if you can improve the productivity of those very labour-intensive industries, you’ ll get significant economic gain. It’ s a fallacy to believe that training’ s only of benefit to some industries and not others.”
Lambert also believes that traineeships in industries such as retail and hospitality, which are normally undertaken on the job, are effective mechanisms for vocational learning:“ It’ s been a long-accepted policy that this form of training, which is a combination of work experience and structured training, is a highly effective skill development mechanism.”
Traineeships are also effective pathways for school students transitioning to the workforce.“ The non-trade apprenticeship is a very important pathway from school to work,” she says.“ It’ s a good skill development mechanism, and also a very good work experience mechanism, and because there was an industrial system around it which allowed people to be engaged as trainees, it meant that a lot more employers were willing to put on additional staff. And that’ s a really key issue.
“ When you’ re trying to resolve issues of youth employment and transitions from school to work, you have to hope that a lot of businesses will put on additional trainees and think of you [ the trainee ] as an affordable addition, because that’ s putting a little bit of insurance into my future staffing needs. If you don’ t have [ policy and funding ] support for structured traineeships, then the opportunities for those young people coming from school are lost.”
REASONS FOR THE DECLINE Lambert points to government decisions in the past few years as having contributed to this decrease in opportunities not just for young people but also for mature-aged apprentices.
“ First, over the past two years, the federal government put in place a series of incentive cuts and they have fundamentally affected the non-trade areas,” she says.“ Very importantly, they started with the Certificate II [ level ]; they cut those entry level traineeships. So we’ ve seen a dramatic reduction from May 2011 when they took out thousands of places in Certificate II traineeships. That was the first thing.
“ The second thing they did was to reduce the mature-age wage subsidy and that affected trade apprenticeships. The matureage wage subsidy was very important, and to reduce it from $ 13,000 to $ 4000 is a dramatic hit on those people. That has a significant impact.”
State governments also contributed to the decline.“ The third thing we should not forget is the changes the states made to user-choice training costs and subsidies. For example, the Victorians made changes to the hourly training fees they pay training providers. For a whole range of reasons, not the least of which is just purely financial, they’ ve looked at their volume [ of training ] and said,‘ We have to cut those areas that are really hitting us’, and they’ ve justified it by claiming that they have to support the training that works better for the economy.”
Lambert says she“ fundamentally disagrees with that [ view ]”. She believes that all training, whether or not it is in a non-trade area like retail training, can work well if it’ s delivered within the quality standards.“ If it’ s delivered by a quality provider and is serving the needs of industry, then all types of training can work well.”
Overall she believes that the non-trade areas such as retail and hospitality have been hit by“ that double-whammy of the feds and the states coming separately to the [ same ] position in tackling those [ non-trade ] areas. So we shouldn’ t just sheet home the blame solely to the feds. It’ s a combination of the two.”
SOLUTIONS Lambert calls for“ urgent clarity on the apprenticeship and traineeship policy” and wants to send this message to the new federal government:“ The number one request we have is can we get some clarity from you about whether you support trade and non-trade apprenticeships? Do you think they are sound policy instruments for achieving skill development and successful school transitions? And if the answer is yes, how do we get them going again?”
In relation to the non-trade traineeships, Lambert suggests that the“ first step could be to look at, and seek from industry bodies, their view is as to what would be effective school transitional qualifications. And reconsider whether they [ might ] be Certificate II qualifications.”
To turn around the decline in apprenticeships and traineeships, Lambert recommended“ a combination of sound consultation working with industry, and a good and open discussion between industry and the government at both levels. It needs to start with clarity of commitment from a policy point of view from the new federal government. But it needs the commonwealth, the states and industry all to engage on working on how we can get this going again.”
Lambert restated the key reasons for the decline in starts:“ Poor ad hoc policy particularly at the federal level, but also to some extent at the states, and the varying approaches that the states are applying to the vocational education system are leading to poor outcomes for commencements.” ■
Dr John Mitchell’ s company, JMA Analytics, measures workforce capabilities. See jmaanalytics. com. au
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