Apprenticeship overhaul needed to fix skills shortage

Trade and industry groups are pushing for an overhaul of the nations TAFE system claiming governments continue to throw money at a problem which is seeing student drop out rates nearly double.

Skill shortages are set to be addressed at Labor's upcoming jobs and skills shortages with expectations that discussions will centre around current migration caps for overseas workers.

Former small business ombudsman and ACT chief minister Kate Carnell said a restructure of vocational education was needed, as she questioned whether course lengths were too long and resulting in higher drop out rates.

"Do we really need four year apprenticeships anymore?" Ms Carnell told The Canberra Times.

"Every single government has ... announced this and appointed in place approaches and nothing seems to work very well.

"I think we've got to have a total re-look at what's stopping people doing apprenticeships and most importantly, what's stopping them finishing them."

Figures from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research shows annual dropout rates to the December quarter of last year rose 41.6 per cent to 102870.

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Commencements over the same period had risen 27.5 per cent and completions increased on 9.3 per cent.

Ms Carnell also noted higher wages for apprenticeships needs to be part of the equation.

Independent for Fowler Dai Le believes skilled migration needs to be ramped up and flagged small businesses in her electorate were facing significant worker shortages.

She notes funding from the government is needed to incentivise small businesses to take on more trainees and apprentices.

"The government has to provide some kind of monetary incentives for small businesses to train people," Ms Le said.

"There are people who wanting to get into the trade, building and construction, but they don't have the funding to train."

Graham Catt from the Canberra Business Chamber also raised skill shortage concerns within the ACT and flagged it should be a priority at the upcoming summit and claims it is putting a "handbrake" on productivity.

"This shortage and the issue that people are dealing with currently and has been for a while now and is putting a handbrake on productivity and growth," Mr Catt said.

He also raised the lack of staff in Canberra was holding back businesses in growing and meeting existing contracts and obligations.

Andrew McReynolds, who owns a small plumbing business in Canberra, has found it increasingly difficult to find staff in the last six-months.

In the end, he says he "poached" a third year apprentice by offering more money.

"It's been hard to find guys and hard to find good staff as well. Good people that want to work, who actually want to do the job," he said.

"I put an ad up on Seek and didn't get anywhere with that. I found for myself as a smaller business that the bigger companies in Canberra seem to be getting all the staff".

Weld Australia indicated the country would see welder shortfalls of up to 70,000 workers by 2030 and is calling for a shortening in the time duration of apprenticeships.

There is speculation migration caps could be increased in the short term, with Nationals leader David Littleproud calling for regional skills visa to better aid non-metropolitan communities.

Concerns have also been raised by the crossbench that the summit will likely be nothing more than a Labor PR stunt and won't produce any consensus on ongoing challenges facing the economy and the labour market.

Changes to enterprise bargaining is being touted as the main area of reform to come out of the summit.