Transcript Apprenticeship demand and supply: Employers’ views

Apprenticeship &
traineeship demand and
supply: Employers’ views
Erica Smith (University of
Ballarat)
and Tony Bush (Charles Sturt
University)
The research project
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This small project was commissioned in 2010 by the
National Centre for Vocational Education Research
as part of the NCVER’s work for DEEWR to inform
apprenticeship reform.
The report is currently being considered by the
Expert Panel which is advising DEEWR on
apprentice reform.
NCVER was particularly interested in whether there
were constraints on the number of apprentices and
trainees and, if so, were they due to employers not
offering enough places or to not enough potential
apprentices and trainees?
Research questions
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Why do Australian companies take on apprentices
and trainees and what factors affect the number of
places that they offer?
What recruitment processes do employers
(including Group Training Organisations) utilise for
apprentices and trainees? What is the level of
interest in available places and the quality of the
applicant pool?
What actions can by taken by companies, by
potential applicants and by other parties to
improve the quantity and quality of the applicant
pool?
Background
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There are around 400,000 apprentices and trainees in
Australia, a high proportion of the labour force (3%+).
Skill shortages remain in some trades, despite the GFC.
Many long-term and short-term initiatives exist to
encourage more apprentices and trainees: aimed at
employers and (to a lesser extent) at would-be
apprentices.
Employers recruit apprentices and trainees for a variety
of reasons including corporate citizenship, wish to grow
their own skilled workforce, a concern for quality, and to
meet regulatory requirements.
Research method
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14 interviews with employers of apprentices and/or trainees;
6 interviews with GTOs;
Participants covered a range of small/large employers, industry
areas, metropolitan/regional-rural;
Trainee empoloyers were selected to cover the three types:
whole-workforce recruitment, selective ‘promotion’ into
traineeships, and limited recruitment for specific roles;
Two employers were local and were serviced by UB TAFE.
Most interviews were by phone. Interviews lasted 30-50 minutes.
A project reference group comprised representatives from Group
Training Australia, a State Training Authority, and an academic
known for apprentice research.
Apprentice and trainee
employment
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Companies and GTOs employed between 4
and 300 apprentices/trainees. The largest
apprentice-employers were an electricity
distribution company (200) and a heavy
goods vehicle retail & repair site (32).
The largest trainee employers were a
national bank (380, in an indigenous-only
program) and a chicken fast food company
(300 including Diploma candidates).
Reasons for employing
apprentices and trainees
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Because they had always done so;
To address immediate workforce needs;
To address future workforce needs including senior
management capacity;
To lift the quality of work being done within the company,
for competitiveness, for accreditation or licensing reasons;
To return something to the community, the trade or the
nation (what is often described as an ‘altruistic motive’);
To provide a career path for workers;
To access extra training input from an external body (ie
RTO);
To make less attractive work more attractive and/or to
become an employer of choice.
Factors affecting numbers
recruited
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The strength of the economy;
The financial position of the company;
The strategic direction of the company;
The availability of suitable work for
apprentices/trainees and of suitable longterm positions for them;
Financial incentives and changes in training
policy had some effects.
Nature of apprentices and
trainees
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Some employers preferred the ‘traditional’
supply from school-leavers; others
considered all ages. Apprentices were more
likely to be young than trainees.
There was a wide range in the applicant pool,
with some trades eg electrical attracting very
high quality applicants to some employers.
Literacy and numeracy levels of
apprentices/trainees varied among
occupations and companies.
Case study of ‘GTO 3’ (regional)
2009-10 financial year
Applicant details –
 1493 candidates; 455 (30%) female and 1044 (70%) male
 371 (25%) were matured aged at the time of registering i.e. 21 or older.
Main industry areas nominated by applicants:
 Automotive (19%) ; Electrical (15%); Building and construction (14%)
 Business (15%)
Type of contract nominated by applicants:
 733 said they were interested in an apprenticeship
 407 were interested in either an apprenticeship OR traineeship
 314 were interested in a traineeship
Highest levels of education of applicants:
 578 (39%) had completed year 12
 191 (13%) had completed year 11
 611 (41%) had completed year 10
 113 (8%) listed as ‘other’ in this field
How selective were
employers?
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Some were highly selective, eg Electrical 3 had
2000 annual applicants for 70-80 places;
Construction had 260-300 applicants for 12-15
places.
Others took a high proportion of those who applied,
eg Meat Processing 1 took about 200 from 500
annual applicants.
Some trainee employers eg Fast food, Retail and
Retail/baking recruited all their trainees from existing
workforce. Most suitable employees looking for
longer-term employment were offered traineeships.
Nature of recruitment
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Some employers had annual recruitment rounds eg
Banking, Construction. Job information was available on
web sites; on-line application processes were used.
Others recruited continuously all year.
GTOs recruited all year but the latter part of the year was
the major recruitment time.
Some employers and GTOs had several stages to
recruitment and selection process; Eg electrical 3 had
four stages including a half-day assessment centre.
Some companies and all GTOs had extensive
engagement with schools, attended careers events etc.
Quality of applicants
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Those companies with the most comprehensive
recruitment processes reported the highest quality of
applicants’
Ad-hoc recruiters seemed to complain most about
poor quality applicants.
Some employers ‘handed on’ unsuccessful but
suitable applicants to other employers in the
industry.
Those recruiting from existing workforce were
generally happy with the quality of recruits.
Effects of training provision on
supply and demand
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Most employers were reasonably happy with training
provision although many were selective in their
choices of provider.
Special arrangements were made so that training
was suitable for the cohort eg Banking and Electrical
3- blocks arranged for limited time away from home.
Some indication that more flexible training
arrangements (eg numbers of intake a year) might
lead to an increase in numbers of apprentices.
GTOs specially mentioned this.
Increasing the quality and quantity of the
applicant pool – applicants and employers
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Applicants: Present well, find out about the
company, gain relevant experience at work or in
hobbies, do pre-apprenticeship, have previous parttime employment if a school-leaver.
Companies and GTOs: Greater engagement with
schools. SMEs could form networks for marketing
and recruitment. Greater and more imaginative use
of web sites. Apprentice companies could be more
open to mature entrants; could change working
practices to offset their greater cost.
Increasing the quality and quantity of
the applicant pool –other parties (2)
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Schools could be more proactive in promoting
apprenticeships/traineeships to all students;
More pre-apprenticeships in more trades;
GTos could be funded to employ ‘above-load’ high
quality apprentices; could be allowed to pay them a
discounted wage;
Better pathways into apprenticeships via
traineeships;
Open apprenticeships/traineeships to non-citizens.
The number of available
places
Number of places offered was primarily
driven by
1. the need for labour; and
2. the ability to adequately mentor, train and
supervise apprentices/trainees.
 Eg Electrical 3, Banking, Fast Food:
branches had to ‘apply’ for the right to employ
apprentices/trainees
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Possible ways to increase the
supply of places
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The interviews with new entrants to the system suggest
that there is scope to recruit more employers to the fold.
Lessen the risk of employing apprentices/trainees. eg
training for supervisors, advice to companies on how to
manage their work systems to accommodate more
people, financial assistance to recruit ‘above load’
apprentices/trainees;
Reduce the plethora of available incentives as these
seemed counter-productive in some cases;
Focus marketing to companies on the altruistic motive;
Focus on improving quality of applicants: some
employers would recruit more if the quality was higher.
Want to know more?
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Report will be on NCVER web site
www.ncver.edu.au
Professor Erica Smith 03-5327 9665 or
[email protected]