Master Builders Tasmania has welcomed skills funding for up to 950 new apprentices and trainees.
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Executive director Matthew Pollock said it was pleasing the government had delivered on its promise to boost the number of trade skills in the building and construction industry.
“The building and construction industry in Tasmania is the fastest growing in the country,” he said.
“Last year new housing construction and the value of new commercial work grew by more than 10 per cent.
“This year we are expected to beat that again, and on top of that we have a huge pipeline of civil construction projects.”
Mr Pollock said remediation work from the May floods in southern Tasmania had placed extra demands on skilled trades at a time when the industry was already at full capacity.
“In a normal year the industry could have coped, but this is not a normal year and with the scale of work underway in the residential and commercial sectors this extra demand for trade skills has pushed the industry beyond full capacity,” Mr Pollock said.
He said with a shortage in some trades it was vital that young Tasmanians took up opportunities to work in the building industry.
“The shortage in some trades is putting pressure of project schedules and budgets and we need to get more skilled trades people into the industry if we are going to deliver on the huge pipeline of work ahead of us,” Mr Pollock said.
Building and Construction Minister Guy Barnett said more than $1.6 million would be distributed to help get new skilled workers into areas that needed them such as building and construction.
“We have growth, we have development and we have job opportunities,” he said.
“Tasmania is leading the nation in the total value of building approvals with a massive increase of 46 per cent in the year to August 2018, and this skills funding is vital to ensure our workforce has the skills they need to keep up with demand into the future.”