News & Events
Money is not everything for apprentices and trainees
8 September 2010
Increasing apprentice and trainee wages alone is not the ‘silver bullet’ to improving low completion rates.
New research released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows that while the pay packet does have some impact on a person’s decision not to complete their apprenticeship or traineeship, the effect is not consistent across the board.
Dr Tom Karmel, Managing Director, NCVER said that the results are a mixed bag.
“For apprentices the benefit of becoming a tradesperson is what matters, not how much they get paid while training”, Dr Karmel said.
“While for females in non-trade traineeships we found no relationship between wages and completion rates.
“However, for males in non-trade traineeships, increasing the training wage would make a difference to completion rates.
“Other factors such as not liking the type of work, being unhappy with the training, poor working relationships with the boss or workmates, illness or redundancy play a large part in why someone drops out of an apprenticeship or traineeship.
“When it comes to lifting completion rates among apprentices and trainees policy makers should not be focussing their attention completely on wages.”
To download a copy of The impact of wages on the probability of completing an apprenticeship or traineeship visit www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2277.html
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