Evidence of skill shortages in the engineering trades

Apprentice and trainee activity 1995 to 2000

Introduction
Recently, employers in a number of critical economic sectors have been reporting increased difficulties in securing the necessary skills in their industries. Certainly there has been growing concern about skill shortages in a number of sectors in the Australian labour market in the past couple of years with the increased demand for some skills as a result of improvements in the Australian economy. However, such concerns are not particularly new since skill shortages are a recurring and persistent feature of the Australian labour market.

In developing appropriate industry or sector-based responses to skill shortages, it is necessary to first determine:

• To what extent do skill shortages exist in terms of the types of skills in short supply and the areas where they are in short supply?
• What are the underlying causes of the shortages that exist?

With respect to underlying causes, skill shortages in the trades can arise from:

• an inadequate number of people entering trade training
• a high attrition rate during the training period which means that not enough people are completing trade training and attaining the qualifications necessary for highly skilled/technical work in the trades
• a high separation from the skilled trades workforce once people are qualified due to a variety of reasons, such as low demand for skills, declining industry employment prospects or better careers and conditions being offered in other industries/sectors
• an insufficient level of activity by the existing trade workforce in upgrading skills once initial qualifications have been attained
• a failure by training providers to ensure that the quality and relevance of training provision keeps pace with rapidly changing skills needs in the workforce
• a combination of the above

In this report, evidence about patterns and trends in trades employment and training in the engineering trades is reviewed in order to gauge the nature and extent of any skills shortages. The report has been prepared using statistical information supplied by the NCVER, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and key information provided by the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business.

The trades examined in this report cover the principal mechanical and fabrication engineering trades including:

• general mechanical engineering
• metal fitters and machinists
• toolmakers
• aircraft maintenance engineers
• precision metal tradespersons
• general fabrication engineering tradespersons
• structural steel and welding tradespersons
• forging tradespersons
• metal casting tradespersons
• metal finishing tradespersons
• mechanical engineering associate professionals
• other building and engineering associate professionals