Poorly paid apprentices urged to stick by training for long term

The Albanese government is looking for ways to bolster apprentice incomes, as soaring food, housing and power prices plunge them into poverty.

The cost of living is forcing apprentices to seek food from charities, sell their cars or move in with their parents to make ends meet.

Labor is looking for ways to bolster apprentice incomes, as soaring food, housing and power prices plunge them into poverty.

The federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has revealed that apprentices are seeking food from charities, selling their cars or moving in with their parents to make ends meet.

The latest official data shows that just 56 per cent of poorer students completed their degree within six years, compared with 69 per cent of wealthier students and 61 per cent of middle-class students.

Alarmed at the prospect of a long-term brain drain, federal Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor called on young workers to stick with their training, despite wages as low as $12 an hour.

“If you don’t acquire skills you’re less likely to get secure work,’’ he said.

“Some of the unskilled job wages are increasing, and my fear is that will encourage apprentices who are under significant cost-of-living pressures to take unskilled but better paid jobs because right now, it’s a better offer. Apprentices see their mates getting better money, but they must understand that in the medium and long term they will be better off overall in terms of their skills being in demand, with better pay.’’

The National Union of Students says university students are deferring or switching to part-time study because they cannot afford to study full-time.

“The trend we’re seeing is that students are taking a degree part-time because they aren’t able to work enough to survive in the cost-of-living crisis,’’ union president Georgie Beatty said.

“For jobs that students do, which are on the minimum wage, the wages aren’t keeping pace with inflation.

“They’re having to work more hours, or take on extra jobs, and some have had to make a decision about getting good grades or getting food on the table for the week.’’

Ms Beatty said the cost of living was having the greatest impact on students who could not live at home with their parents. Even before inflation fuelled living cost, students from poorer families were far less likely to finish university than middle-class or well-off students.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare is pushing universities to do more to enrol and retain students from poorer backgrounds, First Nations students and those from regional and remote areas.

In a speech on Monday to mark the opening of Western Sydney University’s new Bankstown campus, in the heart of his electorate, Mr Clare will call for universities to enrol more students from poorer backgrounds to make Australia “not just fairer, but richer too’’.

He will praise the university for “bringing the buildings to where the brains are’’.

“I made it to university, but I often think of many of my friends who didn’t, for whom it seemed just too far away,’’ he will say in his speech.

“That’s a lost opportunity, not just for them, (but) for our whole country.’’