Campaign targets trade shortages
A campaign to attract young people into trades has begun in an attempt to remedy the ‘‘urgent economic issue’’ of trade and service skills shortages.
Economic forecaster Infometrics has predicted the largest trade and service shortfalls in the next four years in the Manawatu-whanganui region will be in construction, logistics and retail industries.
An expected 390 new project builders, 266 truck drivers and 265 retail managers were needed in the region to meet the demand in the top three roles by 2020.
The ‘‘Got a Trade? Got it Made’’ campaign launched this week as part of National Trades Week, with the aim to raise awareness of onthe-job training and career opportunities in New Zealand’s trades and service industries.
Got a Trade? chairman Andrew Robertson said skills shortages in trades and services was an ‘‘urgent economic issue’’, with hundreds of thousands of new workers needed in the next four years.
Palmerston North builder Paul Robertson said just getting more young people signing on for apprenticeships wasn’t enough to properly promote the trades – young people had to be sold on the future a trade could help them build.
‘‘It’s not just three years then you’re a builder, and that’s it, it can lead to anything. It could lead to running your own company, getting a house or being the project manager on a major development in Auckland.’’
He found too many new apprentices where signing on because it seemed the easiest option, and leaving when they found it was hard work. He said it was fairer on the apprentices willing to do the hard work if everybody knew what was expected before they started.
The Gateway programme offers secondary school students a glimpse of future by allowing them the chance to spend one day a week in the workplace of an industry they’re interested in.
Palmerston North Boys’ High School students Jack Johnston, 16, and Johnny Shannon, 17, have found it useful to get a feel for their chosen trades, and to build contacts for when they leave school.
Johnston, who was placed with Landmark Homes, said the shortage might not be ideal for the industry, but it was good for young people keen to get a start in the trades.
‘‘It should make it easier to get an apprenticeship and a job at the end of [the Gateway programme].’’
Shannon was hoping to be a diesel mechanic, and has been working at Norwood Farm Machinery every Thursday.
He said a trade offered variety, and the chance to work with his hands.
Most of the students on the programme knew what they wanted to do, and an apprenticeship was the best option to get there, Shannon said.