Constructing futures

Time is right to join booming industry

MORE Tasmanians are taking up building and construction training than ever before as employers try to keep pace with the demand of a thriving sector.

But the high numbers of apprentice dropouts each year is worrying industry leaders.

A record 9266 participants took part in the 1606 courses funded by the Tasmanian Building and Construction Industry Training Board over the past financial year.

The most popular were work safety courses, including working at heights, first aid, elevated work platforms and general occupational health and safety, while traffic and rail management and Certificate IV in building also featured strongly.

The board’s $2 million investment saw students spend more than 131,000 contact hours with educators during the 2017-18 financial year.

Chief executive Simon Cocker said the past year beat 2010-11 when 8671 participants were enrolled in 1642 courses totalling 201,235 contact hours.

Apprentices in training have also skyrocketed 58 per cent since 2014, from 1128 to 1786 in 2018 as the sector braces for a 10-year pipeline of work worth $13.9 billion, as well as $4.1 billion in private construction projects.

Mr Cocker said apprenticeships were the priority for the training board.

“Apprenticeships are the only entry point for trade skilled workers in the industry,” he said.

“Fifty-five per cent of employees are trade skilled.

“The consequence of not maintaining training levels is a shortage of skilled workers that will be met by importing labour often at a higher price and with the risk of timing and quality issues.”

The sector also lost 13 per cent of starters last financial year but that was down from 14 per cent in 2016-17.

Mr Cocker said while the 239 non-completions were much lower than other industries and the national average, it was a “waste of training time and money for people to drop out”.

He said there were a variety of reasons for a non-completion but the most common were personal issues such as financial and relationship prob- lems, a failure in the employment relationship or simply recognising the physical outdoor job was not what they wanted.

Mr Cocker said given the current workload and infrastructure pipeline the board had a target of facilitating training for more than 2000 apprentices each year.

Fourth-year TasTAFE carpentry apprentice Zac Mastrocola, 28, said he found it hard to get a job in Hobart 10 years ago when he was 18.

“Now there is heaps of work,” he said.

“When I was just out of school there was nothing, it was pretty hard, it was more that you had to know someone to get into the industry.”

Fellow fourth-year apprentice Keenan Oates, 20, said a lot of his mates who had been trying to get an apprenticeship were now having success.

“Now is the time, there seems to be plenty going on,” he said.

Building and Construction Minister Sarah Courtney said the State Government had a target to increase people employed in the sector by 25 per cent over the next five years.