Group apprenticeship training is an Australian invention designed to help support apprentices in trade training.
Created in the early 1980s by a number of industry associations, including TACC, and supported by governments, it’s a training model focused on rotating apprentices in different workplaces over their apprenticeship.
While today, some refer to this model as a form of labor hire, this was never the intention of this program.
Its roots were firmly centered on the mentoring and pastoral care of trade apprentices, with an experienced and skilled third-party (in this case apprentice Field Managers from TACC) being responsible for the management and progress of the apprentices’ training and their skills progression in the workplace.
The employer who hosted the apprentice paid the scheme operator a premium to undertake the supports and third-party mentoring and, if business conditions became tight, the apprentice could be moved to another workshop for a period of time.
Many of these schemes are still very much alive today and some, like TACC Automotive Apprenticeships, have apprentice completion rates well about the national average.
I’m happy to report that 85 per cent TACC apprentices complete their courses, compared to the national average of just 56 per cent.
It is a training support model that focuses on an individual’s learning and work aspirations.
It’s a model with great benefits that should never be called labour hire.
It’s much more than that.
Words: TACC State Manager, Bruce McIntosh. As published in the Hobart Mercury 19 July 2024