War of words erupts over vocational training ‘con job’ as construction apprenticeships set to go ‘fee free’

Building apprenticeships will become “fee free” from next year, authorities will announce as a bitter political row erupted over “misleading” vocational training data.

Building apprenticeships will become “fee free” from next year, authorities will announce on Wednesday as a bitter political row erupted over “misleading” vocational training data claims.

The state and federal governments will unveil an extra 1,300 such vocational construction trade trainee spots will be available at TAFE SA and industry training organisations over the next two years.

The details emerged as ministers and the Opposition engaged in an ugly war of words over South Australians have been “conned” over vocational election promises.

A government analysis of National Centre for Vocational Education Research data shows the former Liberal administration produced an additional 15,020 training places, which was more than 25 per cent fewer than promised.

Former Premier Steven Marshall promised in 2018 to create 20,815 extra places, according to Labor, which also criticised a wrong focus on leadership and management, fitness, retail and business.

Training and Skills Minister Blair Boyer said “more starkly” numbers were “propped up” after the Commonwealth launched a wage subsidy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Boyer, who is also Education Minister, said taxpayers had been “conned” and “not what the Liberal Party promised South Australians when they said they would create an additional 20,815 apprenticeships”.

“It beggars belief that the Liberal Party would mislead South Australians about the number of people doing apprenticeships and traineeships to make it look like they delivered what they promised,” he said.

“It’s no wonder we inherited a skills crisis when so much of the growth in apprenticeships and traineeships were in areas like business, fitness and retail.

“(These) aren’t the highest priority for a state preparing to build nuclear submarines and construct 40,000 new homes.”

He said it was “yet another election commitment the Liberal Party failed to deliver”.

Training and Skills Minister Blair Boyer. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Opposition spokesman John Gardner. Picture: Ben Clark

But Opposition spokesman John Gardner, a Liberal Education Minister, lashed government “failures”.

He said: “It beggars belief that as SA slides into a skills crisis – with declining apprenticeship numbers and growing workforce shortages – our Skills Minister is spending his time playing with spreadsheets and shuffling data from seven years ago to have a go at the former government.

“Labor’s misguided attack … is a distraction from a big problem in some of the industries where we can least afford it.”

He said the Liberals encourage of businesses had “paid dividends”.

He cited NCVER data that he argued showed a “staggering 13.4 per cent drop in apprentices and trainees ‘in training’ in SA – the largest decline in the mainland” in the past year.

“What that data shows is crystal clear: consistently strong growth in apprenticeships and traineeships under the former government, followed by dramatic decline that started as soon as Labor took over,” he added.