"The Federal Government's initial response to the Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeships Incentive System recognises the importance of apprentices, in particular for small business and in the critical housing sector, but it leaves open uncertainty about crucial employer incentives to hire young workers," said Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, the Australian Industry Group.
"The Key Apprentices program seeks to encourage apprentices into trade occupations, particularly in construction to ease the housing crisis, and will hopefully encourage more young Australians to take up trade apprenticeships. This is welcome. However, there is no clarity around continuing employer incentives which are due to expire on 30 June.
"Without continuing the existing system of incentives, it means here will be far fewer apprentices employed simply because companies will no longer be supported to do so.
"Industry has been very clear that financial incentives are an important factor in supporting employers to take on apprentices and trainees, as well as supporting apprentices and trainees to complete their training contracts. For an employer, the cost of supervising and training an apprentice can be prohibitive.
"There remain many unanswered questions about the how the apprenticeships system across the economy will work into the future. This level of uncertainty is challenging for business, particularly as skills shortages continue to be a significant issue now and into the future.
"Establishing the proposed innovation fund would be a welcome initiative but it should not come at the expense of employers with more than 200 staff.
"We welcome that the review recognises the additional support that many smaller employers need, but we are concerned with a recommendation that only employers with less than 200 people should receive incentives – particularly when larger companies employ half the trainees and one in five apprentices currently in the workforce.
"Those companies are also more likely to hire women, indigenous Australians and more diverse cohorts in our community."
"In the 12 months to 30 June 2024, employers with over 200 employees were responsible for a quarter (25.2%) of trade apprenticeship commencements and more than half (54.5%) of non-trade apprenticeship commencements. In raw numbers that equates to 21,000 out of 83,700 trade commencements and 43,400 out of 79,600 non-trade. And over the same time period, mid size employers in the 200-999 category were responsible for 15.2% of trade apprenticeship commencements and 26% of non-trade apprenticeship commencement.
"Larger employers also play an important role in employing diverse cohorts and regionally based apprentices. For example, employers over 200 workers employ more than two fifths (42.8%) of all Indigenous apprentices, half (50.5%) of women in non-traditional trades and half (51.4%) of all apprentices from a non-English speaking background. as.
