Industry Role in Outcomes

Participants in WA Business News’ skills shortage forum agreed that the business community shouldn’t look to government for all the answers.

“If they [governments] did pretty much everything we wanted, the problem wouldn’t go away. There is a lot that needs to be done by the employers,” Wood & Grieve Engineers director Matt Davis said.

Alcock Brown-Neaves Group director Dale Alcock also called on the business community to take more responsibility.

“Employers, through their associations, come out and cry wolf on a lot of this but quite frankly we as industry need to look in our own backyard and say: ‘what are we doing directly?’

“Its all very well saying the apprenticeship system is broke, which it is, and saying we need to change attitudes, which we do, but industry also has to open itself up to reinvesting in training, and seeing it as a genuine investment in the business and the industry going forward.”

Mr Alcock said this applied to many industries.

“We are guilty of not having reinvested back into our industries over a long period of time.

“Now we are at this point saying, someone else better fix it quickly.”

He said the appropriate response included educating shareholders, who needed to be told that some of their profits would be reinvested in training.

Participants in the skills form said many businesses were reluctant to spend more on training because they were worried competitors would poach the trained staff.

Mr Alcock said his company committed three years ago to get more involved in training through direct indenture of apprentices rather than group training schemes.

“We have directly taken on 100 apprentices over 12 months and we have had no trouble finding those kids. If you are willing to get in and ferret around you will find the connections are there,” he said.