Urgent action is the first job

There is no one single, simple solution to the skills shortage faced by SMEs and business in general, says Sean Gavin from Gavin Construction, but what he suggested as a starting point was an integrated, multi-pronged approach by government and industry.

 “There can’t be reliance on one and not the other,” he said.

“The more activity you’ve got the better result you will get – but it has to happen now.”

Construction, retail, hospitality – whatever the industry, the skills shortage is killing SME confidence. It was the number one issue voiced by the SME sector representatives but the group agreed to disagree about how to combat the skills shortage, with support and opposition for workplace training.

Mr Gavin said skills shortage was “acute” in the building industry.

“It really came home to me when I saw Roy Weston advertising for sales people,” he said. “I thought ‘gee that’s the first time I’ve seen that’.”

Mr Gavin said the building industry was struggling.

“The apprenticeship scheme isn’t doing the job. It needs to be able to get new people in. It’s too long and needs to be fragmented so people can do it in sections. It needs to be more relevant to youth,” he said.

“What there is, is antiquated and it is having a detrimental effect and needs to be modified.

“There is going to be a serious blockage, not just in building but other industries as well, unless it is dealt with.”

Although the State Government announced this week the formation of an industry working group to examine trade training in the residential building industry, critics said they needed solutions now, not a working group that could only make recommendations down the track.

At the time of launching the industry group, Training Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich asked the Master Builders Association of WA to postpone the start of a new introductory trade course titled TradeSmart, training people in roof carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, fixing, carpentry and tiling.

After six weeks, job-ready graduates will be placed with MBA TradeSmart builders as a launching pad for a new career

“While any initiative to ease the skills shortage is welcome, I have a number of concerns about this program. I believe it is a short-term solution to a long-term issue,” she said. However, MBA WA director of economics and housing Gavan Forster said they would not delay TradeSmart. He said an industry working group would take time and was not a short-term solution.

“It is not serving the needs of the industry right now and we are,” he said.

Mr Gavin said the MBA’s TradeSmart program was a positive step forward in trying to bring semi-skilled trade into the workforce.

“It gives them some basic training and gets them job ready,” he said.

“It is proactive and aims to relieve some immediate pressure.

 “Thank God there is someone like the MBA starting programs like TradeSmart.”

And it seems the skills shortage problem is not confined to certain industries or sectors, with Bra Bar retailer Don Sinclair saying the shortage he’s experiencing is because the women who are the experts are becoming older and it’s not appealing to younger women anymore.

“Or they think it is a more glamorous industry than what it actually is so they don’t last terribly long,” he said.

“These women have 30 years’ experience and when they’re gone I wonder if I’m going to get any more.”

Hospitality is suffering the same fate, says long-time industry player Michael Watts from Quadrant Real Estate.

“There is a battle to get good waiting staff and bar staff or whatever it is because unfortunately the unions seems to be making it harder and harder for the employer,” he said.

Similarly, in the real estate industry, Mr Watts said: “Getting the right calibre of staff is near impossible, everything is too easy and they all want to take a shortcut.”

“And there is a huge deficit in people wanting to train people.”

But KEA Advertising’s Keith Ellis said he was fed up with training people, only to have them move on shortly after.

“I’ve been in business for 25 years and I couldn’t tell you how many people I’ve trained,” he said.

“Most have gone and got their own business, so at the end of the day I’ve stopped training totally and I just buy people now experienced.

“You end up training your competitors and I have to say that, when I ask my employees what they want, they say ‘get somebody in who can do it – we’re not going to do any more training here’.

“You train them up and then they leave. There is no loyalty factor, people only stay for two years then they go from job to job, building up their portfolio, so it is not my responsibility to do training.”