Following the recent release of the Employment White Paper, Master Builders Australia has commended the Federal Government’s ambitious education priorities that seek to put VET on an equal footing with higher education.

The building and construction industry continues to be challenged by critical labour and skills shortages, which impact economic recovery and productivity growth, says Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn.

‘Working Future: The Australian Government’s White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities’ provides a roadmap to position the Australian labour market for the future. Describing the VET system as a major pathway to deliver the future workforce, the white paper states that students should be presented with tertiary education choices that raise awareness of the career opportunities provided by VET.

According to the white paper, in the current labour market, around 51 per cent of jobs require a VET qualification, while 35 per cent require a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“VET and higher education must be presented as options with different but equally rewarding career paths to secure, fairly paid jobs.”

Welcoming the Federal Government’s stance on VET, Wawn said, “Developing an informed and evidence-based roadmap for Australia to build a bigger, better-trained, and more productive workforce is critical to our nation's ongoing success.”

“The investments in skills and training, better integration of tertiary education, and the development of higher and bachelor-equivalent apprenticeships will help address the bias that exists with going to university over VET,” she noted while calling for the need to acknowledge the role of not-for-profit, industry-led registered training organisations in developing these pathways.

“Construction is the backbone of the Australian economy, employing approximately 1.3 million people, providing infrastructure, commercial and community buildings, and homes for the growing population.

“The nature of work in the industry is evolving due to increasing business specialisation, more offsite building, technology integration, and complex regulatory requirements but what we know is vocational education is and will remain crucial to the workforce.

“Understanding the emerging and future workforce skills needs is critical for ensuring flexible pathways in the industry that meet the changing and diverse needs of workers, businesses, and employers,” Wawn added.

Earlier this year, Master Builders released its blueprint for future-proofing the building and construction industry’s workforce, which forecast the need for 486,000 new entrants into the industry over the next three years.

“The building and construction industry needs to attract around 230,000 technicians and tradies, the vast majority of whom will need to enter the industry through a trade apprenticeship. Policies that prioritise attracting, recruiting, training and retaining workers in the industry will be vital to ensure Australia’s housing and infrastructure needs can be delivered.”

“The Employment White Paper has also rightly referenced the challenge of female participation in the building and construction industry,” Wawn said. “Improving the attractiveness of the industry to women presents a massive opportunity to increase the pool of potential workers.”

However, Wawn believes the roadmap and policy directions within the paper are being undermined by the Industrial Relations Bill being pursued by Minister Burke. The IR Bill’s objectives are at variance with priorities such as ease of doing business, fostering job creation and sustainable wages growth, encouraging new entrants, and reversing flat lining productivity.

“With 98 per cent of businesses in building and construction being small business, more can be done to simplify complex and inconsistent regulatory requirements so tradies can spend less time in the back office and more time on the tools, growing their business and employing more people,” Wawn said.

Branko Miletic

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