Group training organisations keep apprentices in training and jobs during COVID-19
Signing up with a group training organisation has kept many young tradies in jobs and kept them on track to completing their apprenticeship this year.
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GROUP training organisations are providing job security for apprentices amid the uncertainty created by COVID-19.
More than 15,000 apprentices and trainees have been stood down or had their training cancelled since the start of the pandemic, with predictions close to 100,000 new apprentice and trainee positions will disappear in the next two years.
While apprentices who were directly employed by business have struggled to find new work, GTOs say most of their displaced apprentices have already been taken on elsewhere.
MEGT recruitment and management services general manager Colin McCabe says group trainers took full responsibility for their displaced apprentices, who continued to receive a wage while looking for new work.
He says while 30 per cent of MEGT apprentices and trainees were released by their host employer at the start of the pandemic, more than half of them have already been taken on elsewhere.
The remainder are continuing training, or taking annual leave, while awaiting a new host, McCabe says.
“In a COVID-environment, if a direct employer lets go of an apprentice, the chance of them being rehired is lower because (the apprentice) is just left to drift … and at 18, 19 or 20 (years old), they’re not really equipped to go out in a (depressed jobs) market like this and find something for themselves,’’ he says.
“For an apprentice, group training is much safer, simply because it’s our responsibility to get them rehomed.’’
Master Plumbers SA chief executive Andrew Clarke says COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of job security for all workers, adding the group training model provided stability to apprentices.
“Group training organisations source placements for their apprentices and work hard to keep them employed for the duration of their apprenticeship,’’ Clarke says.
“Thanks to our very strong relationships with our host employers, we were able to retain placements for 90 per cent of our apprenticeships, with the remaining 10 per cent placed back into industry within a short time frame.’’
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He says group training also provided flexibility to employers, with no lock-in contracts and the ability to host apprentices for short or long-term placements.
Brisbane electrical apprentice Leilani Campbell, 23, says she is fortunate to have retained her position with Schneider Electric during the pandemic but has still appreciated reassurance from group trainer MEGT that she would be supported no matter what.
“I’ve had constant communication with MEGT through my field officer but if I hadn’t had that then I would be sitting there starting to overthink things and thinking the worst,’’ Campbell says.
“I’ve heard the struggles of other people but I’ve been lucky that there hasn’t been a period where I have had to worry.’’