A GREATER focus will be placed on keeping apprentices in work as poor pay exacerbates already tight budgets and triggers dropouts.<\/p>\n
Concerns over worker shortages and training gaps have led to a push from Federal skills minister Brendan O’Connor to reform the system.<\/p>\n
The centrepiece of the new tranche of reforms ahead of a landmark migration report being unveiled is a crackdown on dodgy providers who exploit international students.<\/p>\n
A new integrity unit will be established and unscrupulous providers could face suspension, expulsion or criminal prosecution as part of a crackdown on unethical and illegal behaviour.<\/p>\n
The unit will work with law enforcement agencies to conduct intense compliance checks on high-risk providers in a bid to improve protections for all students.<\/p>\n
A confidential vocational education and training tip-off line will allow current and former students, staff, homestay hosts and employers of international students to report fraud.<\/p>\n
The nation’s VET regulator will also get a $37.8 million boost.<\/p>\n
But skilled migration will continue to play a key part in plugging skills shortages with low unemployment resulting in a lack of workers to fill key positions.<\/p>\n
The focus will need to shift from temporary to permanent migration “so they feel genuinely welcomed by the country,” said Mr O’Connor.<\/p>\n
“Particularly when some of the people with those skills have options to go to comparable countries.”<\/p>\n
Increasing skilled migration wasn’t a binary choice between overseas and Australian workers, he added.<\/p>\n
“I never see it as one option or the other, we need to have a very knowledgeable, skilled workforce of our own and we need to rely on skilled migration where we need to do so.”<\/p>\n
Ensuring apprenticeship completions go up is also a priority with about half dropping out of their trade.<\/p>\n
But this needs to be balanced with fiscal responsibility instead of just throwing money at businesses, the skills minister added.<\/p>\n
“It’s not up to taxpayers to fund every form of training where the employer is benefiting from the apprentice.<\/p>\n
“But we need to target the support so it increases the likelihood of completion.”<\/p>\n
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry spokesperson has called for a new subsidy scheme to strengthen the case for businesses to hire apprentices and young Australians breaking into the workforce.<\/p>\n
“We must get the incentives right,” CEO Andrew McKellar said.<\/p>\n
Boosting apprenticeships to address shortages also needed to start at school by changing the perception VET and TAFE were somehow inferior to university.<\/p>\n
Nine of out 10 future jobs will require tertiary education and half of that will come from the VET sector, Mr O’Connor said.<\/p>\n
“The perception of it being a secondary option, a lesser option, is something we need to attend to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“You’re making a very good choice if you enrol in a VET sector provider where you acquire skills that are in demand… and it’s something you want to do.”<\/p>\n
The minister also pledged to work with the disability sector to increase accessibility and opportunities.<\/p>\n
Cost barriers facing people with a disability already struggling with support payments or lower incomes needed to be addressed, he said.<\/p>\n