Government pushes for increase in apprentice pay, sets up new program to match job-seekers with jobs

The Gillard Government is pushing for an increase in apprenticeship pay as part of its $3 billion skills package and has called for workers to consider moving for jobs in the resources sector.

Minister for Training and Skills Chris Evans says with the average apprentice aged 24, salaries need to rise, particularly when workers can earn much more by joining the resources boom rather than endure four years of low wages.

“The market’s changed, expectations have changed, young people’s view of the world has changed,” Evans said yesterday.

Evans yesterday announced more details of the Government’s $3 billion skills package, with funding set aside to attract more fly-in fly-out workers for the mining boom, as well as a new program called Skills Connect to match employers with employees.

“The restructuring of our economy is gathering pace and we must act decisively to seize the opportunities that the readjustment offers,” Evans says, adding that Australians have “not been good at labour mobility” and Western Australia still struggles to find enough workers despite the high quality of life there.

“[The program presents] a range of initiatives designed to immediately target the pressure points in our patchwork economy, meet skills shortages and match skilled workers to new jobs.”

The National Workforce and Productivity Agency is also set to be established next month, with Australian Industry Group chief Heather Ridout, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Peter Anderson and Australian Workers Unions national secretary Paul Howes on the interim board.

Master Builders Association chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch welcomed the new agency, saying it would have a “useful role to play in identifying, and proposing practical, concrete actions to overcome, barriers to skills training and matching, and mitigate the economic costs of sustained skilled shortages.”

Harnisch added that the job-matching Skills Connect program would be “particularly important to the construction sector, which is already confronting serious structural skills shortages.” He expects a further 300,000 workers will be needed by the end of the decade to meet demand in the construction and building sector.

“Master Builders’ forecasts demand for skilled labour in the construction sector is likely to increase by more than 35% over the next decade, with that for tradespeople increasing by 30% and for lower skilled rising by almost 20% over the same period.”