New Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor should focus on quality

Labor’s new Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor. Photo: Jane Dempster

Ahead of the federal election, the opposition announced some promising policies in the skills space. There are potential pitfalls though, revealed by past attempts to improve Australia’s skills system, which the newly sworn-in Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O’Connor, must learn from.

The new government is to be commended for its plan to require that one in ten workers on major government-funded infrastructure projects be apprentices or trainees. This is a positive move towards reintroducing a culture of skills training that will reintegrate apprenticeships into the Australian workforce and ensure that all Australians are able to access secure work, while addressing our national skills shortage. The Victorian state government has trialled this program and it is a good initiative, though it is important to monitor compliance.

We also look forward to the 10,000 New Energy Apprenticeships promised during the election campaign providing opportunities for young people to take up a career in the renewable energy sector, as well as the government’s commitment to rebuilding an Australian manufacturing industry rich with skilled roles for Australians. These are exciting ideas and, if they leverage the experience and evidence of the last decades, may revive the apprenticeship pathways that result in skilled, secure and well-paid jobs.

This is an ambitious agenda and, in implementing it, the minister must avoid the mistakes of the past.

First, and most importantly, the new government must not hit the ground reviewing. This is a common pitfall for incoming governments unsure of how to convert intention into action. But no more reviews are needed. We have had ten reviews in ten years and the economy won’t bear another twelve months of inaction while another review is conducted.

We know what works in skills; the evidence is abundant and clear.

We need school programs to allow young people to start experiencing trades while they complete their schooling. Evidence shows that these programs help young people to find the trade that suits them best, while teaching them the soft skills that they need to succeed in obtaining – and more importantly completing – an apprenticeship. Employers value these programs, rating the young people who have completed them as more job-ready and committed to the path that employer and apprentice walk hand-in-hand. If we are to find enough young people to fill the government’s ambitious training quotas, school programs will need to be rolled out around the country.

We also need to support businesses, especially small businesses, by properly funding and utilising group training organisations. Group training assists businesses in managing the HR, classroom training, and administration aspect of an apprenticeship, as well as helping apprentices in a pastoral sense. The field officer assigned to work with the business and the apprentice supports the young person in any difficulties they encounter in their new role, as well as in understanding and meeting the employer’s expectations of them. If necessary, the group training organisation rotates the apprentice between businesses to round out the skills the apprentice is learning, ensuring that the apprentice becomes a fully qualified tradesperson. Group training organisations have been shown to increase completions in apprenticeships and will be crucial to helping the new minister navigate and strengthen the training system.

Then the new minister must avoid the political temptation to play skills as a numbers game. The truth is, he will not beat the number today, as more apprentices than ever have commenced through the recent wage subsidy program. Some would say this means numbers are artificially inflated by programs that allow employers to have existing workers undertake qualifications in the apprenticeship space so they can claim wage subsidies. Reskilling existing workers is important, but it shouldn’t be done through the apprenticeship system. The goal in the apprenticeship space is to deliver the greatest possible increase in the number of fully qualified skilled workers. To this end, the government must switch its emphasis to the numbers of new skilled workers, and to the benefits to business and the economy of qualified workers entering the workforce, instead of focusing on total numbers of Australians classified as apprentices or trainees.

Finally, the new government has promised fee-free TAFE to help more Australians training for trades. This must be accompanied by measures to make TAFE more nimble, modern and adapted to industry needs. Without reform, the TAFE system will be incapable of delivering adequately qualified apprentices to many rapidly advancing industries.

New treasurer Jim Chalmers wants to focus on finding budget efficiencies: in the skills area, they are ripe for the picking. Years of reviews and trials has provided a strong evidence base from which the government can take immediate action.

As a sector, we’re job ready. Let’s work together to get more Australians job ready too.

Gary Workman is chief executive officer of the Apprenticeship Employment Network (Victoria)