In the wake of falling apprentice and trainee numbers across the country, Tasmania appears to have a lot to lose.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While the declining numbers of those in vocational education training is not unique to the island state, our economic growth over the past four years could stall if there are not enough skilled workers to support that growth.
Tasmania is undeniably having its golden moment with Tasmanian produce, whisky and gin having time on the national and world stages.
However, housing prices have skyrocketed, particularly in the south, with warning signs the pressure may move to the North and North-West.
Low apprentice and skilled tradespeople numbers exacerbate this problem instead of helping to fix it.
The state government has also committed to a large bulk of infrastructure projects, such as fixing the Tamar River and Launceston’s combined water and sewerage infrastructure, the relocation of the University of Tasmania campus at Invermay and the bridge at Riverside, just to name a few.
Those are only a few of the infrastructure commitments that the government has pledged to, with others from the council, such as North Bank and the Seaport pedestrian bridge, to come online.
The only way to improve apprentice numbers in Tasmania is to entice them to follow a trade.
That is why The Examiner has launched its Pick up the Tools campaign – to call for increased federal funding for the VET sector and improve the conversations the community has around TasTAFE.
The campaign will share the successes from the sector and examine the role TasTAFE has to play in this new education environment.
It will also look at the ways we can improve community conversation around the VET sector and how to encourage young people to choose TasTAFE in the first instance and not as a last resort.
Quarterly data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research from June showed Tasmania’s trade apprenticeships were down 4.6 per cent from 2016 but non-trades had risen 12.7 per cent.
The centre reports there are 7575 people in Tasmania in vocational education. That is down 2.9 per cent from September 2016.
That number needs to increase dramatically if we want Tasmania to reach its full economic potential.