Apprentice Dropout Rate Causes Concern
Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday October 16, 1988
The Department of Employment, Education and Training is trying to work out why more than 50 per cent of apprentices in the motor vehicle and building trades drop out before they complete their training.
The shortage of qualified mechanics, vehicle painters, panel beaters and auto-electricians has become so acute, that over-award pay rates are flourishing.
Many companies are offering up to $400 a week - $100 over the award rate -to attract tradesmen back into the industry.
Panel beaters are faring even better out of the shortage: they are being offered wages of $600 a week, or twice the award rate.
The senior project officer with the department's information analysis branch, Mr Cleve McKay, recently completed a study on wastage of skilled labour in the motor trades industry.
On his calculations, the shortage is critical, and there is little chance of the situation changing for at least another three years.
According to figures provided by the NSW Apprenticeship Directorate, between 1974 and 1988, only 60.1 per cent of motor mechanics completed their apprenticeships; 63 per cent of panel beaters; 53 per cent of vehicle painters and 67 per cent of auto-electricians.
In the building trades, the wastage is even higher. During the same period, as few as 37 per cent of wall and roof tilers completed their apprenticeships. Only 50 per cent of bricklayers opted to finish their training.
The factors behind the obvious dissatisfaction with the apprenticeship scheme are numerous: low wages and the lack of promotion possibilities are a common complaint.
The existing pay structure does not take into account skills or specialisation. A mechanic in the industry for 20 years earns no more than a mechanic who has been in the industry for only one year.
There are also complaints about working conditions, but Mr McKay believes there is little that employers can do to alter the workplace.
"Workshops are not generally the most pleasant environments, and that's something that's never really going to change. It can't."
However, even more alarming for industry authorities, the figures indicate that dissatisfaction spreads beyond the apprenticeship scheme. A survey carried out by the Motor Vehicle Repair Industry Council found that by the age of 27, more than half of the workforce had chosen to abandon their careers in the motor trades industry.
The building trades retention of apprentices is even lower. Because jobs in the building industry can be gained without a licence - unlike the motor trades - it appears many apprentices don't bother to complete their training.
Said Mr McKay: "We suspect a lot of apprentices don't complete their training because they can get a better paid job as a tradesperson without it.
The Department of Employment, Education and Training will complete its study later this year. However, Mr McKay suspects that although they do not complete their training, apprentices are not leaving the building industry entirely.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald