Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor signals more support for apprentices

Apprentices are failing to finish their training and opting for lower skilled work to weather the cost of living crisis, Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor says.

Skills Minister Brendan O'Connor. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Apprentices are failing to finish their training and opting for lower-skilled work to weather the cost-of-living crisis, Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor says, signalling the federal government will beef up supports ­offered to apprentices to reverse lagging completion rates.

Mr O’Connor said completion rates for apprentices were “way too low” and needed to be urgently addressed to avert a future skills crisis that could have “very real and profound consequences”.

“Completion rates for apprenticeships are way too low – 55 per cent or thereabouts. In 2012, we had 57,000 … trade apprenticeships completed … and by 2021, it fell by 20,000,” he said in a National Press Club address.

“We do need to make sure we’re providing support to the apprentice and, where possible, to employers over the life of that apprentice. So we’re reviewing the way we deliver support to ­apprentices now – apprentices and employers.”

Along with low completion rates, new figures show commencements for apprenticeships down 33.5 per cent to 33,745 in the last December quarter.

While completing their training, many apprentices are paid under the minimum wage, with employer groups raising concern over the infeasibility of being an apprentice during the current cost-of-living crisis.

Mr O’Connor said he was aware pressures facing apprentices were leading to “people dropping out to get a lesser-skill job because it’s easier to do that”.

“Support for the apprentice, to me is the biggest issue,” he said. “But that’s not just money, that’s also how they’re treated.”

He said while the government was committed to boosting the completion rate by ensuring apprentices were well supported, the measures it took also needed to be “fiscally responsible”.

“It’s not up to taxpayers to fund every form of training where the employer is benefiting from the apprentice,” he said.

“But we need to target the support so it increases the likelihood of completion.”

Mr O’Connor said migration would continue to “play a massive role” in supplying skills to the economy, but that the country had allowed itself to “rely overly on temporary skilled migration”.

Opposition skills spokeswoman Sussan Ley said Labor “talked a big game” but had seen the rates of people taking up ­vocational education drop.