MBA welcomes progress to roadmap on jobs, skills

Master Builders Australia (MBA) has welcomed the federal government’s Towards a National Jobs and Skills Roadmap and hopes it will address issues including skills shortages, gender imbalance and job retention.

Released last week, the roadmap provides an initial assessment of the national skills system and Australia’s present, emerging, and future skills needs.

MBA chief executive officer Denita Wawn said the roadmap was a valuable vehicle for the federal government’s skills and workforce goals and what was needed now.

“Vocational education and training (VET) is central to skills and knowledge development in the building and construction industry, more so than any other sector in Australia.

“A VET qualification is the highest level of education attained for over 600,000 building and construction workers. This is 54 per cent of the total workforce and 80 per cent of workers that have a post-school qualification.

“Analysis of current skills shortages shows that 36 per cent of occupations assessed were in national shortage in 2023.

“50 per cent of the occupations in the category assessed as being in national shortage are technicians and trade workers.

“Ensuring the VET sector delivers high quality training that is occupation- and industry-relevant and valued by employers and the Australian population more broadly is critical to meeting current and future workforce needs in the building and construction industry.

“The government needs to take an approach to ensure that policy levers are being pulled in the same direction to ensure we don’t find ourselves in a position of one step forward, two steps back.

“The proposed industrial relations legislation currently before parliament will counter efforts made in the skills space and make it harder for employers to create new jobs. It will sap productivity.

“If Australia is to meet Housing Accord and net zero targets, we need better incentivise people to join and stay in these occupations now and in future.”

Jobs and Skills Australia’s analysis reveals gender imbalance is a feature of many skill shortage areas.

“Occupations that have a highly gender skewed workforce are significantly more likely to be experiencing shortages than occupations where the gender balance is more even,” Ms Wawn said.

“More work needs to be done to remove gender imbalances and in particular, support women in the workforce.

“The construction industry attracts more male than female workers. Improving the attractiveness of the industry to women presents a massive opportunity to increase the pool of potential workers.

“Initiatives such as Master Builders Australia’s Women Building Australia program are supporting retention through mentoring, helping to dispel misperceptions about the industry, encouraging more women into construction, sharing the stories of women in the industry, and nurturing career progression and business resilience.”

She said completion rates of VET courses were a concern to the industry.

“The early stages of an apprenticeship are the most tenuous. Private Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), like those run by our members, have higher retention and completion rates than TAFE with better pastoral care and support in place.

“Governments should look to RTOs such as those provided by Master Builders members as examples of best practice.”