 - Mayor David Hede
Meeting convened by the Bega Valley Shire Business Forum Inc.
Merimbula Bowling Club, Sapphire Room
Wednesday 4th August, 2004 . 5:30pm-7:30pm
Chair of the Bega Valley Shire Business Forum, Robert Hayson, opened with a welcome to all and thanked those who travelled long distances to be at the meeting.
Robert welcomed the Mayor, Cr. David Hede.
Cr. Hede offered a formal welcome and congratulated all present on the initiative.
Robert introduced John Dedman, South East Area Consultative Committee (SEACC)
 - John Dedman, Executive Officer, SEACC
John Dedman, Executive Officer with South East Area Consultative Commitee (SEACC) discussed a percieved building industry skills shortage which is supported by industry comment gathered from Local, Regional, State and National sources.
John pointed to papers provided in the agenda pack from the (State) Deptartment of Employment and Training (DET) on the number of apprentices and trainees currently employed in the five local regional Shires across a number of trades.
Other issues are also on the agenda for the evening relevant to industry needs.
John introduced the discussion group facilitator Peter Strong, Davidson Wilson - Solutions P/L, ACT. Peter waived his usual fee to assist the community. Thank you Peter.
John introduced Sarah Hannebury, Small Business Answers Officer, SEACC.
John Dedman introduced the following speakers.
Omesh Jetwani, Apprenticeship Manager, MBA, commenced a powerpoint presentation and discussed the skills shortage which is affecting the whole country.
He identified Brickies, Carpenters, Plasterers, Cabinet Making, Tilers and Plumbers as being trades experiencing the most dramatic skills shortages.
This is because, he said, many people are leaving the industry due to old age.
Also, young people are no longer attracted to or are leaving apprenticeships due to low wages (travel and rent being significant factors) and the long period spent on lower salaries.
Omesh said Trades are considered by the young, with the exception of carpenters and plumbers, to be not a good career path, that there was nowhere to go.
He also said that trainees are expressing dissappointment because they are not getting the same educational training as apprentices (many traineeships being serviced by books as opposed to classes).
Omesh stated that mature age students also appear to not have enough information to realistically consider the building trades and that there were some barriers to employment after training.
Omesh recognised the licensing system also has problems for apprentices.
A solution to the skills shortage could be to shorten the term of an apprenticeship but students would not get the same level of training.
The Government, he said, is looking seriously at this problem to address labour market shortages in Australia. This will include providing more information to students about the industry through careers advisors via a professional development pack.
The MBA is also sitting on an industry Working Party facilitated by the Building and Construction Council to work on this problem and come up with solutions.
 - Bill Lampard, Apprenticeship Manager, HIA
Bill Lampard, Aprenticeship Manager, HIA
Apologies from ACT & Southern NSW Director, Caroline Lemozino
Bill's background is in the industry.
Bill is now responsible for Apprenticeships and Traineeships processed through the HIA which is also a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). This entitles them to engage in Group Training (GTO) where the employer is the HIA and builders and tradespeople can hire apprentices from the HIA for a chargeout rate (salaries including superannuation, annual leave and loading, worker's compensation, sick leave public holidays, RDO's, personal protective equipment (PPE) TAFE costs, tool allowance and all administration, ACT industry allowance) plus a service fee.
They have Certificate 3 Apprenticeships in Carpentry and Construction, Painting and Decorating , Floor and Wall Tiling, Plastering, Cabinet and Furniture Making, Bricklaying, Plumbing, Roof Tiling and a Traineeship in Concreting.
Bill identifies the HIA commitment to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) through their HIA OHS Management Plan for all Hosts and a Safe Work Methods Booklet issued to every apprentice.
He said the HIA have 888 apprentices nation wide and that they see quality Host employers /trainers as being the most valuable asset to their program which they actively seek prior to training commencement.
 - Laurie Gilbey, Dean of Building, Illawarra Institute of TAFE
Laurie Gilbey, Dean of Building Illawarra Institute of TAFE
Bruce Fowler, District Manager, TAFE
Laurie states that there are 2,500 students in the Faculty of Building and Construction throughout the whole South Coast. 40 full time staff and 100 part time staff. Courses run from Illawarra Institute of TAFE from Wollongong to Eden, Cooma, Southern Highlands and Moss Vale.
Laurie identifies the past trends in TAFE teaching and the present methods in terms of who bears the load of practical teaching (90% is now done by the Trades). Industry teaches, TAFE supplements. He said that modules are selected on the requirements of industry.
Construction training in the Ilawarra is ahead of the State in terms of what TAFE are doing. Trades apprentices now learn on average for 20 days class contact per annum as opposed to the past which was 36 days and that blocks are planned well ahead so employers can work to that schedule.
Laurie said that now classes are better planned, apprentices recieve pre-reading exercises prior to class and expectations are higher. That way apprentices come to class prepared and they work together in teams. This system has been working well for three years with positive learning outcomes with each apprentice having an effective individual training plan.
He also mentioned that teachers do have to go to the job in "recognition only cases" to assess what skills have been attained and are working hard to formulate processes to do that.
Sertec are a local Group Training provider and a member of the Job Network.
Melinda has been with SERTEC in Group Training for 12 years. SERTEC are a member of over 120 companies Australia wide who provide apprenticeship and traineeship employment solutions to Host employers. They are the largest employer of apprentices in the region with 120 people now on hire to Hosts. 3/4 of those apprentices are in building and construction.
They provide all the paperwork and administration for apprentices as well as mentoring, pastoral care on site and liaison with TAFE.
She said SERTEC's Group Training operation takes the hassle out of the business of employment.
 - Richard Jefferis, ABEN New Apprenticeship Centre (NAC)
Richard said there are three NACs operating in the Shire.
They are contracted to the Australian Government to Department of Education Science and Training (DEST) to provide New Apprenticeship support services to employers. The three providers in the area are:
Australian Business Enterprises (ABEN) NAC - Richard Jefferis
Department of Employment and Training (State DET) NAC - Graham Frost
Campbell Page NAC - Daryl Fraser
He said that having three NACs available to employers kept the levels of service very high and that the role of the NACs was to assist employers who were hiring apprentices and trainees through the paper work and induction.
Most apprentices or trainees attracted Australian Government incentives but that because each case was decided on merit there were no absolute guarantees of incentives.
He said that most cases attracted a commencement incentive of $1,650 and a completion incentive of $2,750.
He also advised of incentives that may also be available to employers for the following:
Women in a non-traditional role.
Rural and regional skills shortage.
Innovation incentives (for electrotechnology industry for electrical apprentices).
Disability incentives (Disabled New Apprentice Support Scheme) for wage support
Living away from home allowance (for the employee).
Jim said his role was to facilitate bridging students (15-18 years) from school into further options and to do that he provides information and options for students. They also have a job vacancy board at school.
Jim said that in Year 10 (total 180 people) 33 people wanted to leave school. Several of them wanted to leave school and go into building related trades.
He said that he starts them in Year 9 with an OHS "Green Card" course then puts them into work experience in Year 10.
He said that Years 11 and 12 can do a Certificate 2 Building and Construction course and that 18 people (Year 12) are doing it this year. He said that it was a very practical course and required the student to do 2 x 1 week work experience placements and that this type of work in the community was a great tool to help students decide if they had made the right choices.
He said that pre-apprenticeship courses were very valuable because a). They were good for screening people into or out of the industry and b). They were a good source of people for the Group Training labour pool.
He thought the Government could subsidise salaries for around of $100 per week as an incentive to employers as an alternative to unemployment benefits.
Geoffrey is also Project Supervisor, Mission Australia's Work for the Dole program and Secretary, Bega Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.
Geoffrey acknowledged the support of the Work for the Dole program assisting the Business Forum with their own survey of the local building industry. He also thanked Michelle Robinson for the administrative support of Sapphire Coast Tourism and that of the Eden Access Centre during those surveys.
He said the Business Forum survey reflected the following:
* The industry was in a boom cycle but that people had little security in that.
* The industry was hiring apprentices but at lower rates for a number of reasons.
* Hiring apprentices seemed to have more hassles than benefits.
* OHS, Licensing, Insurance and administration were all serious problems (cost and compliance).
* That in boom times they needed trades people not apprentices
* There was a general shortage of skilled trades people.
* There was a specific shortage of brickies, plasterers, tilers.
He said the survey, while very general, indicated the industry needed support in administration and compliance. A higher level of support and advocacy would probably facilitate greater comfort in the prospect of increasing their training role.
He said there was a training opportunity cost (the cost of a lost opportunity to train) at work in the industry which could not become evident for perhaps another 10 or 20 years by which time the fine skills of many trades people might be lost.
He also said an opportunity cost existed where the industry was so focussed on survival that it did not attract new blood which brought with it knowledge about innovation and changes in building technology.
thebegavalley.com - an industry web service
Geoffrey also advised the meeting of the availablity of the thebegavalley.com website as a free web service where industry related resources could be published and where the industry itself could interact with the site and each other in a variety of ways. These included online forums on particular subjects, having the ability to make comment and requests, having editing rights over certain areas of the site and being kept up to date on regulations and other industry matters from one web portal dedicated to their needs.
This ends the speakers notes.
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