Employer funded levy schemes are potentially a way to increase employer funded training for new entrants (apprentices and trainees) and for re-skilling existing workers. As such, they might play a role in maintaining the supply of skills in the labour market as well as providing access to training. They currently exist within most states in the building and construction industry, however little is known about the impact of these schemes. This project will investigate the impact of current employer funded levy schemes in the Australian building and construction industry on the training of apprentices and trainees and re-skilling existing workers. The project will also investigate whether the scheme has applicability to other sectors of industry.
The first stage will involve consultations with the relevant skills council(s) and construction industry training boards in each state. This is to find out how the levies work in each state and their intent etc. Also want to consult with training boards in states that do not have the levy. This will set the context for the next stage.
In the next stage it is proposed to consult stakeholders in at least a sample of states to get their impressions on various aspects of the impact of the levies, in particular benefits/dis-benefits of the levies (including at least one state that currently does not have the levy). Stakeholders will include unions, employers, RTOs and employees. The actual form of this consultation will be dependent on what we find out in the first stage but will either be in the nature of interviews, focus groups, surveys or a combination of these.
The final stage will be an investigation as to the applicability of construction model, or parts thereof to other sectors of industry. This stage will be informed by the results of the previous two stages and will involve consultations with some key stakeholders in a couple of other areas of industry.
