At the “Skilling Australia” Conference, held in September, in Sydney, the Prime Minister, John Howard:

1. Expressed the view that the economic return for completing a four year apprenticeship is a modest reward for the time and expense involved;
2. Reflected upon the historical influence of the award structure, which tended to compress wage relativities;
3. Conceded that it was difficult for small to medium-sized enterprises to restructure work arrangements to allow their employees to learn and earn at the same time;
4. Gave no response to the Australian Industry Group’s (AiG) request for an additional one billion dollars of federal government funds to subsidise apprenticeship and other vocational training.

Training Revisited
In a newsletter in February I highlighted the issues that were creating chronic skills shortages in the high growth states of Qld, W.A and S.A. In the intervening months the situation has continued to deteriorate.

Increased rates of pay, especially in the mining and building industries are now starting to impact upon other sectors. The Australian Industry Group (AiG) recognise that “apprentices are quitting their training to take higher paying labouring jobs.” Concurrently, on the other side of the industrial divide officials of the LHMEU have been quoted in recent news reports, as finding that many childcare workers left after a year or two to look for higher paid jobs.
Government’s response has been that the Minister for Immigration, Senator Vanstone, has added childcare workers (together with surveyors, electrical and mechanical engineers and a range of computer specialisations) to the Migration Occupations Demands List for preferential migration treatment.
So how did we get ourselves in this situation and what can be done?

Changing Circumstances
Historically, employers have sought and welcomed the involvement of government in the vocational training debate in this country. During the period of the Hawke and Keating Governments billions of dollars were expended on the implementation of a series of policy initiatives aimed at overhauling the traditional apprenticeship focused training system including:

1. national training levies;
2. a tripartite network of Industry Advisory Boards (ITABS)
3. industry and group training companies;
4. joint state and federal ministerial councils (ANTA);
5. establishing a set of industrial arrangements in the form of a network of Training Awards.

All of these initiatives ultimately came together under the “Working Nation“ program, and had major input by peak employer and union bodies.

Much of the architecture put in place during this period has now, with some notable exceptions eg: group training companies, fallen by the wayside or met with disfavour under the current federal government.

During the past eleven years above average growth together with a accelerated shift from a dominant ‘manufacturing/rural to a ‘service/information’ economy, has seen a major change in the skills requirements demanded of the workforce. Also significant factors are an ageing population and greater deregulation of the labour market, which is underpinned by the following points:

1. Currently ten percent of the workforce is engaged in the delivery of health services and, by 2015 it is anticipated that this figure will increase to twenty percent, if the community expectation of quality of service delivery are to be realised.
2. Forty percent of the workforce are neither employers or employees. Further, it is reasonable to assume that passage of the Federal Government’s “Independent Contractors Bill 2006”, will see a significant movement away from the traditional ‘master and servant’ relationship towards more common ‘single proprietor’ structure, lifted from the clutches of awards and orders of “Industrial Relations Commissions”.
3. ABS figures for the period 1997 – 2005 show a marked decline in training from 148.6 to 139 million hours. There is a strong tendency for firms to invest more, in terms of training dollars, in those who already have skills than those who don’t.

In its submission to government the AiG sought additional support for extra training for existing workforce participants whilst maintaining current funding for entry -level training. The employer group acknowledges that industry has a responsibility but it also falls to governments and individuals.

The Productivity Commission has argued that the answer to much of the current mismatch between the skills held and the skills needed by the Australian Workforce is a more competitive, consumer-driven market in vocational education and training, with the TAFE system going head to head with private service providers for every available dollar.

Unfortunately only the views of the big end of town are being heard. Who is putting the views of employees, students and their parents in this debate; unions that had been an equal party around the table during the 1980s and 90s are being largely ignored, due to the fact that less than 20 percent of the overall workforce now seek their representation. Concurrently, the increasing proportion of the workforce employed by small business, or operating as sole traders are being left out in the cold.

One particular shortcoming of the former ‘Working Nation’ structures was that the training needs of medium to large organisations were adequately addressed, however the same could not be said for those of small business, this became even more the case in regard to regional and bush based enterprises.

Amendments to the taxation system delivering generous rebates to individuals undertaking and completing accredited training used to generate income would shift the emphasis away from the user of the skills  (the customer/employer) to the service provider (employee/contractor).

Finally, consultative mechanisms providing the opportunity for all stakeholders to have input should be reinstated. Government and Training Providers would thereby respond more effectively with labour market requirements on both a regional and national basis.

It would be a tragedy if lessons learnt during the 1980s and 90s were ignored, and the huge sums of money expended effectively written off.

Michael Taylor
Principal Consultant
HMT Consulting
Providing professional services covering Industrial and Workplace Relations concerning small to medium sized businesses.

Phone/fax: (07) 54-444341
Mobile: 0419-240523
e-mail: hmtconsulting@optusnet.com.au