Master Electricians Australia (MEA) has welcomed the election policy announcement from the federal ALP that apprentices in residential construction will receive a cash bonus to help keep them in a sector critical to solving the housing crisis.
Under the scheme, apprentices would receive a total of $10,000 over 5 instalments throughout their apprenticeship in a bid to prevent them leaving the industry.
MEA CEO Kate Raymond said this incentive is needed to help address the looming shortfall of electrical apprentices, including mature-age apprentices.
“Electrical contractors are crucial to addressing the housing crisis Australia faces, this means we need to be supporting the next generation of tradies,” Ms Raymond said.
“To attract young people to an industry as important as construction we need to ensure appropriate financial incentives are in place or we’re not going to have enough electricians in the long-term.
“If we are to build the residential homes needed to service a growing population, we need to be ensuring there is workforce pipeline in place to meet demand. MEA welcomes this announcement and we encourage both sides of politics to continue to look at measures to help apprentices.”
Ms Raymond also said small and medium-sized businesses needed support to employ and retain apprentices.
“Time and again we hear from small business members who lose apprentices to larger competitors for higher wages. We completely understand anyone seeking a better wage, which is why MEA strongly supports measures to boost financial support to apprentices in residential construction.
“Small businesses do the heavy lifting in terms of training apprentices, particularly in their early years.
“MEA has conducted extensive advocacy to all levels of government in this space. This includes support for small business to train and retain apprentices, consideration of expanding the apprentice transfer fee model in South Australia to other states, where the business obtaining an apprentice part-way through training pays a transfer fee to the original business, and better support for mature age apprentices.
“We will continue to work with governments at all levels to enact practical solutions to assist SME electrical contracting businesses who are critical to the Australian economy.”
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Kate Raymond is available for interview.
Please phone The SAS Group on (07) 3221 9222 or 0467 792 013.
