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More incentives needed to support trade apprenticeship employment

23 October 2009

Source: NSW Business Chamber

Government needs to do more to reduce the burden on business associated with taking on an apprentice, according to a policy submission by the NSW Business Chamber.
Prior to the economic downturn, NSW faced a significant shortage of skilled workers in many sectors. Even with a decline in skilled vacancies following the economic downturn, many tradespeople are aging and expect to retire or move on in the next few years.

Our future economic capacity will rely on securing a supply of skilled tradespeople to take their place, retaining and upskilling workers in the middle and later stages of their working life.

The NSW Business Chamber policy submission, Maintaining Trade Apprenticeship Numbers During the Downturn, has been submitted to:

  • NSW Department of Education and Training
  • Council of Australian Governments’ Australian Apprentices Taskforce

The NSW Business Chamber recommends that the Australian Government:

  • Significantly increase trade apprenticeship financial incentives available to small businesses
  • Weight incentive payments towards the first two years of an apprenticeship to reflect the higher supervision cost and lower productivity during the early years
  • Reduce paperwork and provide incentive payments by direct deposit to employers at 3 monthly intervals to reinforce employer retention of trade apprentices

The NSW Business Chamber recommends that the NSW Government:

  • Reinstate payroll tax exemption for new entrant traineeships and trade apprenticeships to reduce paperwork associated with employing an Australian Apprentice
  • Extend payroll tax exemption to cover existing worker traineeships to encourage more existing workers to undertake an Australian Apprenticeship
  • Extend workers’ compensation exemptions to cover traineeships in identified skill shortage sectors as well as apprenticeships
  • Significantly increase its allocation of prevocational training places to match the NSW Government’s commitment to employ 4,000 additional apprentices and trainees in the public sector over the next 4 years


Submission by the NSW Business Chamber

NSW Department of Education and Training Discussion Paper

Council of Australian Governments Apprentices Taskforce Paper

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