Fear of ‘skills crisis’ as NSW school students drop out of trade courses

NSW school students are abandoning courses in trades that already need to import foreign-trained workers and even though the government hopes a new curriculum will help, it may already be too late to avoid a looming “skills crisis”.

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School students are dropping out of courses with the best job prospects and business chiefs have warned this will tip the skills shortage into a full-blown “skills crisis”.

Students are abandoning courses in trades that already need to import foreign-trained workers, such as auto repair, cabinetmaking and metal fabrication.

Not as many students are taking courses in trades like auto repair. Picture: iStock

There has been double-digit decline in school-based vocational education and training (VET) courses for occupations tipped to boom in the next five years.

“It is a perfect storm for a skills shortage to turn into a skills crisis,” NSW Business Chamber CEO Stephen Cartwright said

“Most of the occupations identified are already experiencing a skills shortage, are difficult to recruit into and are forecast for significant growth over the next five years.”

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Students are instead enrolling in courses linked to trendy jobs with comparatively poor employment prospects, such as fitness, outdoor recreation and even flying drones.

Fewer than half as many students took courses in hairdressing or furnishing in 2018 as 2016, according to the NSW Education Standards Authority’s latest figures.

There were 933 HSC hairdressing students in 2018, down from 1955 in 2016.

Last year there was a 28 per cent drop in enrolments for the “automotive retail, service and repair” course, which is a cumulative 42 per cent drop in two years.

There were also double-digit declines in agriculture, metal and engineering, information and communications technology, and community services — and a significant drop in retail and construction.

Studying a VET course at school is considered a valuable opportunity to consider career choices for the 60 per cent of HSC students who don’t go to university.

There were 2648 HSC metal and engineering students in 2018, down from 3416 in 2016.

Teachers and parents are largely to blame for warning kids off VET courses in school, according to the NSW Business Chamber head.

“The reduction in the number of students doing a VET qualification while they are still at school is a major concern,” Mr Cartwright said.

“Students are being discouraged from doing a VET qualification by their school or by parents who have negative perceptions of VET and consider it as being lower than a university degree rather than as an equal alternative.”

The NSW government hopes the curriculum review will turn enrolments around.

As well as a crash in the number of students who enrol in VET as part of the HSC, there were more than 40,000 fewer enrolments in TAFE last year.

The education minister has promised a new curriculum will turn the numbers around.

“For the first time in 30 years we are reviewing the NSW curriculum,” Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said.

“A key focus of this will be streamlining what students learn, making it easier for those who choose VET subjects to pathway into TAFE.”