Published Thursday, 31 July, 2008 at 09:30 AM
Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Rod Welford
Record number of Queenslanders finish trade training
The Bligh Government strategy to overcome skills shortages is succeeding according to new figures released today.
Education and Training Minister Rod Welford said the latest figures from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) showed a record number of apprentices and trainees completed their training in Queensland in 2007.
“The most significant increase has been in trade apprenticeship completions, with 10,165 job-ready Queenslanders finishing their training in 2007,” Mr Welford said.
“That’s an increase of 22.9 per cent or almost 1900 more trade apprentices finishing than in 2006.
“Overall 31,415 apprentices and trainees completed their training in Queensland last year compared to 29,359 in 2006.
“It’s particularly pleasing to see that Queensland led the nation in the uptake of trade apprenticeships and traineeships in 2007, with 21,100 commencements.”
The most popular apprenticeship trade area is general construction which attracted 4400 apprentices and trainees last year. In the non-trade occupations, the business services industry led with 9600 commencements.
“More than 63,200 Queenslanders commenced an apprenticeship or traineeship in the 12 months to the end of December 2007, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year and almost double the 32,800 commencements in 1997,” Mr Welford said.
“The NCVER figures show Queensland’s growth rate in apprenticeship and traineeship commencements is more than double the national rate of 3.7 per cent for the same period.
“The report shows Queensland had more than 88,300 apprentices and trainees in training as at 31 December 2007, an 8 per cent increase on the previous year. Ten years ago Queensland had 48,600 apprentices and trainees in training.”
Mr Welford said the Government was working to increase apprenticeship and traineeship completion rates through initiatives such as the Queensland Skills Plan’s ‘Train to Retain’ program and the ‘Early Completion Bonus’ scheme.