Submission from the National Association of Australian Apprenticeships Centres to The

SUBMISSION FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIAN APPRENTICESHIPS CENTRES TO THE EXPERT PANEL REPORT A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY - APPRENTICESHIPS FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Background

Australian Apprenticeships Centres (AACs) promote the uptake of Australian Apprenticeships and provide independent advice to a broad range of stakeholders: employers, industry groups, schools, careers advisors, Indigenous organisations, jobseekers, students, Jobs Services Australia (JSA) providers, Disability Employments Network providers, community groups and local councils. In addition, AACs administer the Australian Apprenticeships Incentive Program.

AACs are at the heart of industry on a daily basis and are integral to the employment and training industry. AACs employ over 2,000 Staff including 1,000 Field Officers who meet thousands of employers everyday. AACs are regionally based and have more than 500 sites in Australia and service remote locations such as Christmas Island and the Torres StraitIslands.

There are 270,000 new Australian Apprenticeships commencing every year. AACs are present at every induction/sign up. AACs are the only organisations which see every Australian Apprentice and provide consistent and impartial advice to them.

A National Apprenticeship System

AACs consider that Australia’s apprenticeship system is amongst the best in the world. However, that does not mean that there is not room for improvement. The system is unnecessarily complex and despite the best effort of Australian Apprenticeships Centres, many employers are reluctant to engage with it.

There is an urgent need for a national apprenticeship system which addresses the following issues:

• Uniform legislation across jurisdictions, including a common determination of apprenticeships and traineeships;

• Consistent requirements for the registration and lodgement of Training Contracts;

• Consistent requirements for supervisor/apprentice ratios;

• Nominal hours common for all States;

• Consistent arrangements for User choice funding;

• Easy transfer of Training Contracts between employers and across States;

• Flexible entry and exit points;

• Consistency in training packages across States; and

• Standard provisions in all modern awards covering full time, part time and school based apprenticeships.

There are many players in Australia’s apprenticeship system – RTOs, AACs, GTOs, Careers Advisors, State Training Authority field staff, schools, JSA providers and so on. Employers and apprentices, including potential apprentices, have to work their way through these organisations to engage with the apprenticeship system. These organisations have distinct and important roles, but often there is unnecessary duplication.

NAAAC agrees with the expert panel’s recommendation that the National Custodian should be tasked with clarifying the roles and ensuring that services are provided by the most appropriate provider.

NAAAC also agrees with the expert panel that there are three distinct phases that contribute to skill formation through Australia’s apprenticeship system. We consider that the first two of these – effective pathways for entry into the system and high quality employment relationships – are critical if there is to be a successful outcome.

Currently there is no consistent approach to these two phases. We consider that a lot can be done to address this.

The expert panel has identified five effective entry points into an Australian Apprenticeship. These are:

• School;

• Pre-vocational;

• Pre-apprenticeship;

• Other employment; and

• Existing worker.

In our view, there are two dimensions to building on the entry points to an apprenticeship. One is a need to create and nurture the “talent pool” through careers counselling (at school), pre-employment training that addresses both soft and work skills, assistance in placing job seekers into apprenticeships, assisting people wanting to change careers and so on. The second is to assist employers, particularly small to medium size employers, in their workplace development and identification of and addressing skill gaps, including through apprenticeships.

This latter aspect feeds naturally into the expert panel’s second phase: high quality employment relationships. We agree with the panel that “the importance of selection cannot be underestimated as the foundation for the long term success of the employment relationship”.

For this reason, we propose that AACs be involved in placing job seekers into apprenticeships. AACs are already engaged with employers and workplaces and are in a position to “filter” job seekers so that there is a better match from the start of the apprenticeship and a high quality employment relationship can be developed.

The other aspect to the strength of the employment relationship is the quality of the off the job and the on the job training. There is significant activity underway regarding off the job training and this can be strengthened by a move to a national system as we have proposed above. In relation to the quality of the on the job training, if there are issues arising, it is often the case that the apprentice doesn’t know who to turn to to raise any concerns that they might have.

AACs already promote the uptake of Australian Apprenticeships to a broad range of stakeholders and engage with both the employer and apprentice for every apprenticeship commencement. This means that AACs have developed extensive networks and are in a good position to become the apprenticeship portal by looking after all aspects of the entry points to an apprenticeship.

The role and responsibilities of AACs needs to change from the current focus on contractual compliance to a client centred focus on achieving outcomes for the employer and the apprentice. This would enable the AAC to determine the level of involvement needed to achieve a successful completion. In some cases, little support will be needed. In others, there will be a need for regular support and mentoring.

This may involve State Training Authorities stepping back from undertaking a monitoring role and focussing on regulation and mediation (where required). This would remove one level of duplication that currently occurs in a number of States.

Support for apprentices and employers

AACs are currently trialling a range of mentoring support arrangements under the Kickstart Mentoring Initiative. NAAAC understands that these pilots are making a difference. NAAAC would like to see mentoring support become a mainstream function for all AACs. This would mean the apprentice would know who to go to when seeking advice and assistance as issues arise during the apprenticeship. This would include issues to do with on the job training. At the same time, the AAC would be proactive in providing support so that issues could be identified and resolved early on.

There are two aspects to providing support to apprentices and employers. One is the support provided by an outside expert (eg an AAC) to ensure that issues that arise that may impact on completion can be identified and resolved. The other is the need for mentoring of training in the workplace by an expert tradesman (a “Master”).

Issues that need to be considered for providing ongoing support by an outside expert include:

• Support starts from commencement of the apprenticeship/traineeship;

• This is an educative process for both the apprentice/trainee and the employer, together and separately;

• Support needs to be tailored for the individual circumstances. Some may not need support. Others may need a lot of support. There is no single model that applies in all circumstances;

• Communication can be tailored – eg visit, facebook, twitter, skype etc;

• It may be necessary for other agencies to be brought in;

• This support cannot be measured by compliance methods. Rather a range of KPIs should be implemented. These could include:

-Retention rates at 6 months and 12 months;

-Satisfaction surveys of employers and apprentices/trainees;

-Focussing on industry areas where movement is more common.

• Greater effort being put into getting the right person into the right apprenticeship. In some instances, the relationship between the AAC and the potential apprentice could begin at school;

• Early identification of barriers – eg literacy and numeracy issues and linking up with appropriate assistance. This means the AAC needs to partner with other services or providers so as to use what already exists; and

• It is important that the progress of an apprentice/trainee is able to be traced nationally, regardless of which AAC or STA. This further supports the need for the introduction of unique student identifiers.

In relation to workplace mentors, specific training may need to be provided. Apprentices see this as an important dimension of the apprenticeship system that assists in their receiving quality on the job training. Currently, it is difficult for many small and medium size businesses to provide this form of mentoring.

TargetedAssistance to the Australian Apprenticeship system

The expert panel has recommended that Australian Government incentives should be redirected to provide structured support services to eligible apprentices and trainees and their employers in occupations that are priorities for the Australian economy.

There is no doubt that Australian Government incentives play a significant role in encouraging small to medium businesses to take on an apprentice or trainee. It is difficult to assess, however, whether these businesses would still decide take on an apprentice or trainee if there was no incentive.

In addition, as the report points out, a one size fits all mechanism may no longer be appropriate. It is also important to take into account that there are two dimensions to Australia’s Apprenticeship system: skill acquisition and social gain. Another way of looking at this is that the focus of the Incentives Program need not focus exclusively on economic return on investment.

AACs consider that in any review of the Incentives Program, the following issues should be taken into account:

• Early completion bonus in areas of skill shortage;

• Focus more on completion rather than commencement;

• Reduce incentive payment for Certificate II commencement;

• Introduce a wage subsidy for disadvantaged groups;

• Because the needs of individual apprentices and trainees vary, it is not always appropriate to have generic financial support arrangements such as Tools for Your Trade (eg some employers already provide this). An Apprentice Pathway Fund (EPF) should be established which AACs could administer on a needs basis to eligible apprentices and trainees;

• Introduce different arrangements for existing workers and job seekers;

• Weighting of incentives should be towards the skill shortage areas and to equity groups;

• More funding to support mentoring training by employers, particularly for small and medium size businesses; and

• Simplify DAAWS.

One option is set out in the following table:

Qualification / Commencement / Completion
Certificate II / $750 / $750
Certificate III traineeship / $1,000 / $2,000
Certificate III/IV trades / $2,000 / $4,000
Certificate IV traineeship/Diploma / $1,000 / $2,500
Recommencement trades / $2,000
Apprentice Pathway Fund (EPF) / Determined by AACs on an as needed basis

Completion rates

NAAAC has problems with the way completion rates are calculated by NCVER and which are used in the Panel’s report. Tables 1 and 2 indicate that the completion rates for all trade occupations are just over 45% and for non-trade occupations are around 51%.

NAAAC considers that the ‘completion rate’ per individual Australian Apprentice is higher than these figures would have us believe. There are two reasons for this:

• Apprentices who change employers during the course of their apprenticeship are deemed ‘recommencements’. Due to differences in each State jurisdiction, there are ambiguities and discrepancies in the methods used to record and measure apprentices who re-commence. This in turn impacts on reportable completion rates; and
• The successful recording of a ‘completion’ is dependant upon key stakeholder input and a complicated system for processing the data collection, with little incentive and/or disincentive for “getting it right”.

These issues need to be addressed if there is to be confidence in the data.

Looking at the issue of recommencements and using information provided to NAAAC by AACs, the recommencement rate for all apprentice registrations is of the order of 10% and for the trade occupations is around 30%.

NAAAC understands that NCVER records a recommencement as where the apprentice cancelled or withdrew from their previous apprenticeship, then completed the recommenced apprenticeship would be counted as one cancellation/withdrawal and one completion.

For example, an apprentice who has had four employers over the life span of their apprenticeship would contribute three cancellations and one completion count to the statistics, depending on which state/jurisdiction they are in.

This clearly has implications both for commencement and completion numbers.

For this reason alone, NAAAC strongly supports the introduction of a unique student identifier in the VET sector. Such a system would not only benefit students as they move through the sector and between employers, but also would enable policy makers to have a more accurate picture of the performance of the sector.

Summary

In conclusion, NAAAC considers that:

• There is an urgent need for a national apprenticeships system;

• The role and functions of AACs, as integral players in the national apprenticeships system, need to change so that they become the apprenticeships portal and are able to provide mentoring support for apprentices and employers during the apprenticeship;

• Consideration needs to be given to amending the Incentives Program so that it is more targeted to priority areas, but retains a focus on the two dimensions of the apprenticeships system: skill acquisition and social gain; and

• A unique student identifier be introduced so that the progress of an apprentice/trainee can be traced nationally, regardless of which AAC or STA they may be with. This would assist in the provision of ongoing support during the apprenticeship and would enable policy makers to have a more accurate picture of the performance of the sector.