A rural business owner has called for an overhaul of vocational education to help solve the ongoing national skills shortage.
Key points:
- One rural manufacturer is calling for the return of trade schools
- The construction industry is forecasting more than 100,000 unfilled roles by 2023
- Agriculture industries are also witnessing a drain of workers to the mining industry
Political leaders will meet with union and business representatives for the federal government’s Jobs Summit in Canberra on Thursday and Friday, in an effort to boost economic productivity and wages.
The general manager of Namoi Valley Bricks in Gunnedah Michael Broekman says staff shortages are costing him $20,000 a week in unfulfilled orders.
He wants to see the return of trade schools.
“Students should be able to leave year 10, go into a trade school, do all of their TAFE requirements and come out of that particular education provider ready for work,” Mr Broekman said.
He said the Jobs Summit in Canberra should look at overhauling educational pathways for trades.
Mr Broekman says the trades industry is the only one that relies on employers to sign-off on qualifications, and that needs to change.
“They take on young kids, put them through four years of training hoping they might future-proof their business. But there are other opportunities out there, so they leave,” he said.
“So they [businesses] are constantly doing this training and many businesses are going, ‘Well, why bother?'”
Skills shortage to continue into new year
The skills shortage is impacting more than just the manufacturing sector.
Earlier this year the construction sector was forecast to have more than 100,000 unfilled roles by 2023.
Farmers are also witnessing a drain of their workforce to the mining and civil industries.
Wee Waa cotton farmer Todd Farrar also believes the solution is education pathways.
“Cotton is a forward-thinking industry,” he said.
“It’s fantastic to get into [but] we basically have to attract young people and try to pull them away from the higher-paying mining jobs.”
Tim Poole is an agronomist in Moree and says businesses are resigned to having to run on a skeleton staff.
“That’s quite confronting when we’ve got farmers with full dams and a big irrigation season coming towards them,” he said.
Mr Poole says there has been no solution to the replacement of international workers.
“Backpackers did make up a big portion of our itinerate workforce and the absence of that group of people is really pinching,” he said.