Concerns about apprenticeship levels

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is deeply concerned at the likely detrimental impact that the substantial reduction in apprenticeship incentives revealed in the media will have on apprenticeship numbers.

ACCI's Director of Employment, Education and Training at ACCI, Jenny Lambert, said: "Of all the areas to target for funding cuts, apprenticeships and traineeships should be the last.

"An apprenticeship is an effective and valuable training model where both the employer - through wages, and the government - through training funding and incentives, invest in highly regarded qualifications that deliver skills to the economy and the prospect of excellent career earnings to the apprentice.

"A report in today's (Friday 19 October) Daily Telegraph suggests the federal government has recognised the power of incentives by planning to introduce a new construction industry incentive to kick start apprenticeship commencements in that sector, and we welcome that.

"But the same report suggests that the mid-year economic review will also include cutbacks to apprenticeship incentives, which is moving in exactly the opposite direction."

Apprenticeship and traineeship numbers are already struggling, with trade apprenticeships on a downward trend in the last two years. Positive action including incentives is important in a softening labour market.

"The proposed incentive reductions will probably further accelerate the downward trend in numbers being trained via apprenticeships.

"Service industries such as retail, fast-food, hospitality and business services have been the hardest hit by the previous round of incentive changes and the Victorian training cuts, and this change to incentives further detrimentally targets those industries, sending the wrong message that training in these sectors is not as worthy of government support," Lambert said.

"Ironically, the scaling back of incentives for part-time and casual trainees in areas such as retail and fast food will make it uneconomical for many employers to offer accredited training options through traineeships, so it is the trainee who will suffer from the lack of a nationally recognised qualification.

"These proposed changes, except the construction incentive, are a bleak day for jobs. High labour costs and now low financial incentives to put people and school leavers into work is a nasty combination for our labour market."