Industry responds to skill shortages

The federal government has recently released statistics on new job starts and apprenticeships in trades in 2010 that shows that training initiatives are having a positive effect in dealing with the country’s skills shortage problem.

Commenting on the announcement, Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Heather Ridout said: “The increase in apprenticeship commencements announced 2 December by the federal government is a positive sign that industry is responding to skill shortages by investing in the training of young people.

“The traditional trades are a key area to focus on in addressing skill shortages and the growth in apprenticeships needs to be sustained.

“The results show that the Kickstart Bonus appears to have been a success in supporting apprenticeships and Ai Group is strongly of the view that there should be some redesign of the incentive to make it permanent.

“Ai Group itself employs well over 500 apprentices, yet there remains strong demand from employers to host apprentices and there are plenty of vacancies in the scheme for young people.

“Another promising aspect of the training data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research is that the number of higher level qualifications (diplomas and advanced diplomas) commenced in 2010 is more than double the number of these qualifications which were commenced in 2009 (8200 compared to 3700).

“While this increase is off a low base, we have consistently stressed the need for industry to have access to higher level skills and these statistics show an increased commitment to the building of those higher level skills.”