One of the hottest topics at the skills shortage forum was the negative attitude of students and parents towards traditional trades such as metalwork and mechanics.
One of the hottest topics at the skills shortage forum was the negative attitude of students and parents towards traditional trades such as metalwork and mechanics.
The forum also heard that students were steering clear of maths and science subjects, leading to shortages in areas such as chemistry and metallurgy.
Industry, government and union representatives agreed that more effort was needed to change current perceptions and practices.
“We have to, in a long-term sense, fundamentally change the way we prepare young people for the workforce,” Education and Training Minister Alan Carpenter said.
“A significant component of that fundamental change is that the system has been pushing everybody towards tertiary education … now that’s just not right.
“We are undertaking a lot of effort to change the imagery around trades.”
This approach seems to have attracted bipartisan support, with Prime Minister John Howard expressing similar views during the recent Federal election campaign.
“We need to change the culture,” Mr Howard told the national press club.
“We need to have an Australian nation in which a high quality technical qualification is as prized as a university degree.
“We need to recognise that we made a mistake decades ago when we began to assume that the only way a young person could have a hopeful career was to go to university.”
Dale Alcock Homes managing director Dale Alcock said his industry was “suffering from 30 or 40 years of an opinion that if you fail at everything else at school, you go and become a builder’s labourer”.
“It really has done a lot of damage,” Mr Alcock said. “We have to turn around the perception that a trade is a dead-end job.”
Automotive Holdings Group operations executive Peter Thompson expressed similar concern.
“One of the issues we have in the motor industry is our image and attracting good quality people into the industry who see a career path,” Mr Thompson said.
He said the industry had to do more to provide proper training over an extended period.
Mr Thompson and Mr Alcock agreed that apprentice promotions needed to be aspirational, highlighting the potential to earn high incomes and move up to other positions in each industry.
Mr Carpenter backed their comments, adding that the Government was also looking to “legitimise” and promote vocational education in the school system.
“We’re talking about flexibility, relevance and status for these courses that often have been just something to keep kids occupied if they come back to school,” Mr Carpenter said.
Chamber of Minerals & Energy director Reg Howard-Smith said current shortages in professions such as engineering and metallurgy reflected a long-term change in education patterns.
He acknowledged the history of boom and bust in the mining industry has deterred many people and adversely affected the attitudes of students and parents, but he believes the problem goes deeper.
“A lot of the issues we face are not just Australian or West Australian issues, they are worldwide issues,” Mr Howard-Smith told those at the forum.
“Kids just don’t study maths and science. Right across the Western world we are seeing schools of chemistry, for example, fold through lack of people studying.”
Mr Howard-Smith said a particular concern was the shortage of students in metallurgy, which was presently taught at three universities in Perth.
“If there is not major change then we won’t be teaching metallurgy in Western Australia.”
He said the chamber was looking to get agreement that metallurgy should be taught only at the proposed minerals precinct adjacent to Curtin University.
He added that the chamber’s school promotions would be more selective next year, targeting schools that fed students into appropriate university and TAFE courses.
It would also target schools in key regional areas such as Karratha and Kalgoorlie, providing resources and professional development to help boost maths and science.
Mr Howard-Smith said the chamber also wanted to see the establishment of a specialist maths and science school in WA, co-located with a university
“That would be a major plus, not just for the resources sector but for professional careers in Western Australia,” he said.
Mr Carpenter said the Government already had a range of programs to attract students into science and maths.
He added that specialist high schools had traditionally focused on areas such as art and drama, but in future the Government wanted to have schools specialising in academic pursuits such as maths and science.
