Australia is at risk of falling short of skilled workers lift productivity, according to new report
Australia is at risk of falling short in delivering a skilled workforce as most employers continue to face barriers in hiring apprentices and trainees, the Ai Group warned.
The Ai Group Centre for Education and Training (Ai Group CET) has released a new study on the experiences of employers across the country who are hiring apprentices and trainees.
"The most substantial analysis of the employer experience of apprenticeships and traineeships in years shows Australia is at risk of falling well short of delivering the skilled workforce needed to lift our flagging productivity," said Innes Willox, Ai Group chief executive, in a statement.
According to Willox, Australia will need an extra 186,800 skilled technicians and trade workers alone by 2034.
"A skilled workforce that matches employer needs is a critical piece of Australia's productivity uplift. Workforce shortages are already a huge problem, impacting productivity and stopping businesses from running their operations in the most efficient way possible or growing their business," he said.
The warning comes as the Ai Group CET report found that 96% of employers continue to face challenges in hiring apprentices or trainees. Among the top barriers they cited are:
Nearly seven in 10 employers said they are affected by more than one barrier, with nearly four in 10 saying they are impacted by three or more.
"This further highlights the multifaceted nature of issues relating to apprenticeships and traineeships from the perspective of employers and the complex economic equation referenced previously in this report," it read.
Willox underscored the need for a renewed focus on ensuring that Australia's apprenticeship and training systems remain viable to ensure new employers can participate and current ones can maximise the opportunities they provide.
This includes ensuring that financial incentives that employers receive do not get substantially reduced, as 51% of employers said they would be less likely to hire an apprentice if those were cut.
"[This] reinforces the need for these incentives to be considered as part of the broader economic reality of the system for employers," Willox said.
The CET report made 10 recommendations to the government to address the challenges facing Australia's apprenticeship and training system.
"The risk of inaction is immense. In a period of widespread skills shortages, anaemic productivity growth and stalling private sector investment, we simply cannot accept the apprenticeship and traineeship system maintaining current levels of commencements and completions," Willox said.
