Philip Andrews
Background:
I am the father of a 21 yr old sheet metal apprentice. He commenced his apprenticeship in 2009 about 3 months before his 21st birthday.
He completed year 12 at high school, and had participated in several VET courses whilst there include gaining an engineering 1 certificate, and a forklift licence. He also did metal work in school and designed and build a bicycle frame as a project, he is a very competent Mig/Tig welder.
He started his first job 3 days after finishing school (Nov 2007) with the company (Spotless) which services the corporate boxes at the Clipsal 500 motor racing carnival, driving a forklift firstly in their warehouse loading containers with equipment needed for each box. Then at the track unloading and installing the tables chairs fridges etc, then during the actual race days delivering liquor to the boxes. He has worked at this event annually, the last three years supervising the liquor distribution, his is currently working there for the 5 days of the event (March 2011) having taken a weeks leave from his full time job. They also payed to upgrade his forklift licence so he could drive the larger machines that can lift fully loaded containers.
The rest of the year between races he worked as a general labourer with a builder who specialised in repairs and small renovations with whom he learned a lot of skills, framing, working with wall and ceiling boarding, fencing concreting etc but no formal qualifications. In March 2010 he moved to Sydney with his partner to house (and cat) sit for her father who has a two year overseas posting. He had expected to be able to find casual work but as the house is on the north coast there was little available, so he signed up with a Group Training organisation who were advertising for a sheet metal apprentice. He had tried for some apprenticeships in Adelaide but there is very little in the metal trades here and this is always what he wanted to do.
He is now working at a company which manufactures high quality stainless steel products for the high end architectural market, balustrades, staircases, kitchen range hoods and bench tops for commercial and domestic, and will make one off designs of virtually anything to a clients needs, working from architects or designers drawings or producing design drawings and then manufacturing from client’s sketches. He was hired on his resume without an interview. He is really enjoying the work and has a very positive involvement with the business owner and other workers and is being taught all aspects of the processes including the design side. His employer was impressed enough with his welding ability to allow him to work on ‘real’ work two days after he started. The company also has a sub contractor who installs the products, my son works with him for some of the time using the skills he learnt from his previous building work.
They have a good OH&S regime something my wife and I worried about when he started, stainless steel can be a dangerous material as it generally has very sharp edges.
He is also attending TAFE.
Problems:
Pay: He is currently payed the minimumbase rate for a first year apprentice $7.40 / hour had he started 3 months later i.e. when he turn 21 it would be $14.40 , the company pays the Group training organisation $16.
His pay hardly covers his transport costs, he receives a small amount from Centre Link. We pay him an allowance of $300 / fn, plus occasional bail out payments for unforseen emergencies. Living costs in Sydney are high and he has a 140Km round trip drive each day, the route is not serviced by public transport. His partner has a full time job as a receptionist with a major company which helps with the living costs, they are responsible for the running costs of the house rates, electricity, water, vet etc. She also has high transport costs as her job is in the CBD and is also expected to be well groomed.
Why when determining remuneration aren’t factors such prior leaning, work experience and agetaken into account? The living costs of a 21 yr old are vastly different to those of a 17 yr old. Why if an apprentice starts at 21 it is considered that he needs to be payed more but not when he turns 21 after starting? The owner of the business considers him more valuable to the business than what his is paying for him but is not allowed to supplement what the group training is paying him.
I have no idea and have not able to find out who determines how these people are payed.
Future: Although he is really enjoying what he is doing and realises for his future he needs a qualification, his ambition is to run his own business, he is talking about quitting and starting another apprenticeship with another organisation just to get the higher rate. The training organisation gives him no assistance and takes the minimum of interest in him, I suspect only enough to keep their accreditation.
From his description the TAFE he attends could also do with a major upgrade old run down buildings and equipment and lack of equipment i.e. one welder for a class of 12 welding students. The standard of teachers sounds ok but they are hampered by the working environment.
This time next year they will lose the accommodation as they will not be able to afford Sydney rents will probably have to return to Adelaide I have talked to a provider in Adelaide who would be willing to take him on and should be able to find him a position. They also told me that there would be costs in transferring the apprenticeship; this seems to be another disincentive.
After seeing how my son has been treated I have no trouble understanding why so many young people don’t finish their apprenticeships, not all have parents who can support them like we have. In the 5 days he is working at the motor race he will earn two months apprentice pay.
I have also had contact with an Adelaide training organisation (PEER) through an apprentice (electrical) employed by the company I work for, I was more impressed by them, they seemed to take a genuine interest in him and what he was doing, they regularly sent reps to our workplace who would talk to him about any problems and to us about his progress, attitude and relationships with other workers. They moved him for periods to other companies to gain experience in areas we did not cover such as domestic and heavy industry. They do much of their off the job training in house and it is of a very good quality, I worked as a technical trainer with the Dept of Aviation in the 1980’s with some of the now PEER instructors. He is now qualified and a full time employee with us.
I started my career as a Technician In Training with the Dept of Civil Aviation as I was an electrical trainee I was also indentured so I would be qualified for an A class electrical licence. The traineeship was 5yrs and all training was done in house we did 42 40Hr weeks in the training school for the first two years with 8 weeks on the job. The last 3 years was mainly on the job with short courses on specific equipment, some of our on the job was at remote sites. Our training was very diverse as we were being trained to run one man stations at country airdromes ranging from general electrical work, power generation, diesel mechanics, airport lighting, fire alarms, refrigeration and air conditioning, electronics and basic radio maintenance. When I attended a refresher course at PEER and mentioned to one of the current apprentices there that the instructor was an ex colleague of mine and he exclaimed “He knows absolutely everything do you know everything?” I answered “yes” offcourse.
It’s not practical to provide this sort of diversity these days and probably unnecessary but the quality of training should be to this standard there would appear to be a very big gap currently between the best and the worst.