Is the housing crisis a product of the ‘cultural erosion of trade apprenticeships’?

A range of factors have been acknowledged for the slump in apprentices across the building and construction industry, but where are the solutions?

New data released from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research has highlighted the declining apprenticeship numbers across Australia in the building and construction sector.

Building and construction apprenticeship commencements have fallen 22 per cent in the year to December 2023. Only 41,935 people have started an apprenticeship in these sectors over the past year, which is down from 54,035.

Attracting and retaining talent in both the building and construction industries has become a massive struggle, disrupting the flow that used to occur where an abundance of high school students would graduate and enter the trades sector.

The Future of the Workforce: Apprentices in Building and Construction report offered insight that declared a holistic approach as the way forward.

Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said: “Despite a sizeable workforce of over 1.35 million people, the industry is facing acute shortages with an annual exit rate of 8 per cent, of which we are currently only replacing half of that rate.

“Prolonged construction labour shortages will lead to a $57 billion reduction in Australia’s GDP over the next five years. The role of improving our domestic pipeline of workers is critical to overcoming the housing crisis.”

The housing crisis is an immediate issue that is affecting a wide range of Australians across the country, and Wawn believes that the degradation of the trades sector is the focal point for why it’s happening.

Coined as a form of “cultural erosion”, Wawn believes that the high-school-to-university pipeline has had a demonstrative effect on the building and construction industry’s ability to attract and retain talent, citing a big push towards universities as a major detriment.

“For decades, we have seen the cultural erosion of trade apprenticeships with students being pushed towards the university system. Apprentices are paid to learn, unlike their higher education counterparts who pay to learn.”

“VET and higher education are both integral parts of Australia’s education system and should be viewed as such. It will take a concerted effort by governments, industry, schools, and the broader community to turn this ship around,” Wawn said.

To counteract this erosion of the trades sector, Wawn calls on the federal government to put a concerted effort forward to ensure that an uptick of apprenticeships occurs.

“The federal government made a range of positive announcements aimed at attracting more apprentices into the building and construction industry in the recent budget,” Wawn said.