In generations past, Australian businesses trained their workers.
It was common for an Australian to finish high school or university and then take up an internship or graduate role at a company to gain vital skills and experience.
This century has witnessed the decline of internships and graduate programs across Australian companies.
In the mid-2000s, the federal government expanded Australia’s permanent and temporary migration programs, granting employers access to a fresh pool of foreign workers.
One predictable result was that employers scaled back internships and graduate programs in favour of employing off-the-shelf migrants. After all, why spend time and resources training a local when you can easily hire a migrant worker with experience?
Despite the explosion in immigration, Australian businesses frequently complain about skills shortages. Yet, as illustrated below by Greg Jericho, there is an abundance of applicants for roles who would likely be suitable with training—something employers no longer wish to provide.
Now, the Business Council of Australia’s (BCA) election skills blueprint wants the federal government (read taxpayers) to provide employers with cash incentives of up to $14,000 over four years for each apprentice to encourage them to train or re-train workers.
“Under the BCA proposal, which has been with Employment Minister Murray Watt since last year, baseline support of up to $4000 an apprentice a year would be paid to employers for the first two years of an apprenticeship and up to $3000 for a third and fourth year”, the Australian reported.
“The BCA is pushing for a $40m fund over four years to incentivise larger businesses to expand successful training programs and extra incentives – up to double the baseline amount – for small and medium-sized businesses boasting strong completion and diversity rates”.
The BCA continually lobbies for more immigration to ease skills shortages. Now, it wants taxpayers to fund training for its workers.
Here’s a novel idea: how about restricting access to foreign workers so that large employers have to compete for workers by offering better pay, conditions, and training?
Why should Australian taxpayers pay for businesses to train their apprentices? They should take responsibility for their own needs.
