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To whom it may concern,
Re: Federal government set to announce apprenticeship review
Under the current Employer Incentive Program, many employers who are employing “green apprentices” and training them for a couple of years until they become an asset, are losing their 3rd year and 4th year apprentices to employers who refuse to train apprentices that are green. The current system encourages these lazy employers to poach apprentices and then pays them 10% wage subsidies for the next 2 years. If an apprentice changes to a new employer just once or more throughout their apprenticeship, the current system is continually paying 10% wage subsidies for the duration of each apprenticeship and it’s not benefiting the out of trade apprentice or good employers who are committed to train green apprentices.
If you are serious about boosting apprentice completion rates, employer incentives need to be paid in line with RTO’s who get paid on completion of each college module. Currently the Federal Government pays hiring incentives to employers who employ apprentices, but many private employers are taking advantage of the government funding and cheaper wages but are not sending their apprentice to college. By the time the apprentice realises they are falling behind in college, its often too late because very few employers (if any) are willing to employ an out of trade apprentice and then pay the wages to attend college for the apprentice to catch up. OSMAC is one of the few employers who will employ out of trade apprentices that are behind in their college, but it is happening far too much and costing us a small fortune.
However, if the federal government paid employer incentives AFTER college modules have been completed, no one will be disadvantaged, especially the apprentice! The cost to the Federal Government will be significantly less with more apprentices being able to attend college to complete their apprenticeship. Put simply, if the first employer doesn’t send the apprentice to college the next employer/s will be paid the government incentives to help cover the out-of-pocket expenses (wages) to send the apprentice to college. You will then see apprentice completions increase dramatically because too many out of trade apprentices are currently forced to walk away from their apprenticeship when they cannot find an employer willing to pay the wages to put them through college. I understand there is FAT funding to pay the college fees when an apprentice doesn’t have an employer but apprentices cannot afford to go without wages while they attend college.
I believe this will be the most cost effective and fairest way to boost apprentice completions rates in Australia.
Happy to chat further if you need any clarification.
Kind Regards