Wired For Success
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday June 15, 2004
South Coast apprentices and employers excelled in the 2004 NSW Group Training Awards. Lisa Sewell reports on a program that helps small business create youth jobs.
When it comes to apprentices - and host employers - the South Coast is sitting pretty.
In this month's NSW Group Training Awards, a North Wollongong electrical apprentice took out the top honour of apprentice of the year, an Albion Park High student won the school-based apprentice, while a Bega trainee was successful in the disability category.
The employers didn't fare so badly either, with Funnell's Electrical Contractors in Camden and Blue Circle Southern Cement winning the top awards in their respective host-employer categories.
As well, there were many South Coast finalists including Nicholas Carpenter from Sussex Inlet in the indigenous section and Shellharbour's James McGregor and Ben Jay in the main apprentice category.
So what exactly is group training?
According to Group Training NSW chairman Charles Dalglesh, it is an Australian concept which is benefiting both young people and employers.
In each group-training situation, a group-training organisation employs a new apprentice and places him or her with a host employer for on-the-job experience.
About 37,500 of the 406,900 new apprentices nationally are employed through a group-training organisation. In NSW alone there are 9400 group-training new apprentices.
``Group-training companies take the hassle out of new apprenticeship arrangement for employers. They take care of the paperwork and the pastoral care, whether it's a traineeship for 12 months or a three- or four-year apprenticeship," Mr Dalglesh said.
``And it's particularly handy for small businesses that can't afford an apprentice on a continual basis, as group employers can place apprentices with one host employer for the entirety of their apprenticeship or a number of host employers over that term."
Mr Dalglesh said the initiative was also helping address skills shortages across the trade areas. In NSW, 66 per cent of new apprentices employed by group-training organisations are in trade-related occupations. This is a remarkable achievement given that, nationally, these occupations make up only 13 per cent of the workforce.
``Group-training companies have been running for around 20 years but have really come to the fore in the past decade," he said. ``They are helping the country's economy by not only developing skills to improve the workforce, but providing employment for people when no-one else is offering them that chance."
Mr Dalglesh said group training had also proven effective in generating school-based new apprenticeship opportunities. In 2003, for instance, 12,700 young people started their new apprenticeship while still at school - an 11-fold increase on the 1999 figures. Group-training organisations employ 26 per cent of all school-based new apprentices.
The 2004 NSW Group Training Awards was a fitting way to recognise the outstanding achievements of new apprentices and their employers and to promote the benefits of new apprenticeships, particularly to the 70 per cent of young Australians who do not go straight from school to university.
Mr Dalglesh is also the managing director of the Health Industry Group Training Company, one of 25 group-training organisations in NSW employing more than 12,000 apprentices. Some 6000 host employers across the state support the arrangement.
``The initiative is continuing to expand. Over the past year the number of apprentices increased by 1000 and we hope to achieve similar results over the next year," he said.
Illawarra and Shoalhaven Group Training manager Chris Schofield said the organisation had been involved in the scheme since its inception.
``Our role is to recruit and place apprentices with local host companies to their criteria," he said. ``If accepted, we closely monitor the apprentice through his or her trade, at the workplace and the TAFE institution.
``As we are the legal employer, we look after all the administration. We also have the ability to rotate apprentices through different host companies so they can gain all their necessary trade competencies which they may not be able to get from just one company."
Mr Schofield said Illawarra and Shoalhaven Group Training, a division of the Hunter Valley Training Company, had more than 150 host employers, from big organisations like BlueScope Steel to small newsagents.
``We have over 250 apprentices working in host companies and 120 different trade apprenticeships available," he said. ``There's a critical shortage of tradespeople throughout Australia, particularly in engineering trades, and group training is helping to address that."
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury