Hia Trains Young For Building Trade
The Age
Friday April 12, 1996
IF THE hey-day of the building industry apprentice was in the 1970s, when apprenticeships with a single master tradesman were relatively easy to come by, the 1990s have seen days of doubt.
Few young people today are lucky enough to be taken on as a traditional apprentice - to learn one trade while working full-time and studying part-timeover a four-year indenture period.
The reason for this is the dip in the fortunes of the house building industry, which has led to doubt among employers and despair among school-leavers. The builders doubt if they can sustain a full-time apprentice, and the would-be apprentices are left wondering if they ever will get a start.
However, for the past 25 years the building industry has been warning itself of the dangers of the situation - that a skills shortage would cramp the industry if and when rosier days returned.
Caught in this predicament, the house building industry needed a boost, and it came with a remodelling of the apprenticeship ethic. That remodelling saw the apprenticeship framework shortened, but also widened.
It was shortened from the traditional four years serving one master in one trade to an intensive TAFE course where students complete 360 hours instruction and then seek work as an ``improver".
It was widened by teaching those students more rounded skills in a program designed to fit them with practical knowledge of not one trade, but two or three, such as plasterboard fixing as well as carpentry.
Recently the Housing Industry Association took the bull by the horns and started its own pre-apprenticeship course.
The HIA advertised for young people interested in getting that all-important start in trade training. It lobbied successfully for State Government funding for the scheme, and, with the $270,000 granted, enrolled 36 pre-apprentices for its Building Young Professionals pilot scheme.
It began in January with 31 carpentry trainees and five trainee bricklayers. Each boy (not a single girl applied to join the scheme) was presented with a set of working clothes and a toolbox by the HIA, which then contacted its members (large and small builders) to offer work experience.
Ms Jackie Djordevic, assistant to HIA general manager Ms Carolyn Lloyd, said the scheme already was proving a success.
``We have several of the state's larger builders offering work experience, and the idea is that these young people get the feel of working on a building site. Just by being there and helping, they can absorb so much."
The pilot scheme will run for 16 weeks, and the HIA hopes it will be able to continue it with future intakes, although as Ms Djordevic cautions, that will depend on continued Government funding.
The HIA's 36 pre-apprentices are officially not paid during their training stint, but the HIA asks the work experience provider to pay each individual a token $10 per day.
The value for the pre-apprentice, however, is in the practical experience they receive with a major builder. Those supporting the pilot scheme include Pioneer Homes, Jennings, Glenville, Mirvak and Metricon.
There are others, all members of the HIA, and all with an eye to the future, when the Victorian building industry might need more labor.
The HIA pilot program is being run in conjunction with the Building Industry Group Scheme (BIGS). The HIA will deliver some of the necessary theoretical training at its own training centre in Jolimont, with certain training modules undertaken by BIGS.
Features of the pilot include relocatable classrooms on site at major developing housing sites, involvement of leading home builders at every stage of the pre-apprentices' work, and a competency-based training course that allows for accelerated progress.
Apprentices in the HIA scheme are expected to complete their overall training in six months less than the traditional apprenticeship.
Ms Djordevic said the pilot, although only just past the half-way mark, was proving lucrative for both sides. She said it appeared likely that all 36 in the scheme might be offered full apprenticeships by HIA members.
``This shows how successful the idea has been," she said.
``Young people are getting the right experience and, it would seem, are to be offered jobs once they finish their initial 16 weeks of work experience."
For further information, phone the HIA on 9280 8200.
© 1996 The Age