It’s the shortage many people in construction are talking about—that of the lack of motivated apprentices across the entire industry.
While government targets for new buildings rise, the amount of labour available to do the work is falling and without new apprentices coming through the system, it’s only going to get harder to find workers. Geordon Murray, HIA executive director – Future Workforce and
Industry Research, says that while the volume of residential building currently underway is relatively low, the building industry still has labour shortages.
“It’s certainly a lot lower than we need if we’re to achieve the housing accord target of building 1.2 million homes overfive years,” he explains.
“If we increase the volume of home building by about 50 per cent, which is what we need to achieve that target, it requires a huge increase in the labour force. And really the only realistic way of addressing that labour shortage is by training more people “And for the vast majority of the occupations that the industry needs, apprenticeships are the main pathway.”
The Housing Industry Association is a Registered Training Organisation and works with the industry to help small businesses, in particular, to secure and train their apprentices.
“There are fewer apprentices in training now than there were 20 years ago,” Murray says. “But it cycles. There’s avery strong link between the number of apprentices in training and the volume of construction work that’s underway. So when the industry’s going very well and there’s a lot of work on, businesses will create the employment opportunities for apprentices, and they’ll take them on, and they’ll provide them with the training and the experience.
But as soon as there’s a downturn in activity, we see fewer of those opportunities being created. And that’s where we are at the moment.”
Jude Hobson has just completed his apprenticeship in parks and gardens, winning the 2024 Apprentice of the Year(Parks and Gardens) at The Landscape Association’s annual Excellence Awards. Hobson completed his apprenticeship while also studying his Cert III in Landscape Construction.
He pursued studies in both fields simultaneously, completing his qualifications in half the usual time. Working as a landscape tradespeson
for landscaping company Manuka Gardens in the ACT, Hobson says that he originally planned to go to university but decided to defer and work as a labourer at a local landscaping company while he decided what he wanted to do longterm.
“I wasn’t too sure if I wanted an apprenticeship, but it didn’t take long,” he says. “After a couple of weeks, I said,‘I’m not going to uni; this is what I want to do.’”
There are challenges with completing an apprenticeship, admits Hobson, including the low pay and fact that the work is physically demanding. “When you go down the apprenticeship route, it’s not exactly the most luxurious pay,” he says. “But if you do well and you take pride in your work, the success will come later down the track.
You have to fall in love with the lifestyle more than the job.” Hobson is currently working on residential construction, which he likes, and prefers to commercial work. “You’re doing lots of smaller scale works, but they’re quite precise and there’s a lot of them. There’s a big variety. Every job’s different. I’ve never done the same thing twice.”
He adds, “I like the problem solving in construction, but then having to consider plants and maintaining them and having that aspect is really important too. I’ve advised on a few occasions where maybe we have too many plants or something’s not looking too happy, and
I’ve taken it home and revived it.”
Manuka Gardens is a relatively small operation, and Hobson says that he has found that to be a great way to learn his trade. Because the team is small, he is given more responsibility and say in company decisions.
“Sometimes responsibility can be a bit too much, but building a healthy work environment where you’re quite transparent with the ongoings in the office and in the team is quite helpful because you can start to understand and it doesn’t seem so daunting.
“It was obviously very hard at the start because I was worried about making mistakes and things. I made a few mistakes here and there in jobs and my employer just said, ‘Oh, no worries, let’s go fix it together.’ You learn that it’s okay to make a mistake and you’re just problem solving and this is all part of the job.
“Of all the apprentices that I’ve worked with and seen in my classes at tech, the happiest are the ones that have been given more responsibility at work.” This doesn’t surprise Geordan Murray. “There’s been a lot of research undertaken as to the circumstances and the factors that influence someone’s decision to discontinue in apprenticeship,” he says.
“The general view is that apprentices who are getting the experience and having a positive experience through their training, such as mentoring and exposure to different tasks throughout their apprenticeship, continue and do well.”
