In 2005 GTA and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF) commissoned research into the reasons for the significant increase in commencements in traditional apprenticeships in recent years, after years of little or no growth. A research report Getting It Right, and an associated policy statement, were subsequently released by GTA and DSF and are available on this website.

One of the policy implications identified by the research partners was the relative call on public funds of traineeships to apprenticeships, and the possible need to reprioritise expenditure in favour of apprenticeships in view of chronic skill shortages in the traditional trades.

In order to explore this question further, GTA and DSF hosted a roundtable in Melbourne on 27 April. Participants were drawn from industry, research institutes and unions and discussion centred on a paper commissioned by GTA and DSF and prepared by Mark Cully of NCVER. We believe the paper, Kirby comes of age: the birth, difficult adolescence, and future prospects of traineeships makes an important and timely contribution to the debate in Australia about the direction, funding and quality of skills development.

Over the past 20 years the concept of traineeships has been stretched to accommodate a number of deliberate institutional design changes. Cully argues that there have been three significant departures from their original intent:

• the original target group for traineeships – young, pre-Year 12 school leavers – now account for only one in eight of all newly commencing trainees
• traineeships have moved away from a model of general, transferable skills that might be a stepping stone to higher skilled jobs towards a model where completion is an end-point
• there has been a marked shift towards higher level qualifications. Certificate I and II qualifications now account for only one in four traineeships that are completed.

As a result the paper concludes that traineeships now have a hazy purpose.

We believe it is important to examine the contribution that traineeships, and the considerable public investment they represent, make to a high wage, high value-add, innovative economy. Are traineeships in their current forms the best vehicles for developing the skills that Australia needs? How can we strengthen the traineeship approach so that Australia’s intermediate, technical and design skill needs are met?

This paper is part of our continuing commitment to encourage an informed and thoughtful debate about Australia’s training effort. Download a copy of Kirby comes of age and the summary of roundtable outcomes here.