Building a career in trades

By ANGELA McCARTHY

Earn as you learn - and no student loan to pay off at the end? Sounds tempting. Given that's what trade apprentices do, you'd think young people would flock to them. But the response is slow, and New Zealand suffers a shortage of good tradespeople.

Dave Whitehead is just 25, yet owns his own building business, employing two tradesmen and a labourer. He and wife Cathie own two houses and two modern vehicles. Not bad going for someone just four years out of their apprenticeship.

"You definitely get started more quickly in a trade, but you have to work hard," says Whitehead. "I've a lot of mates recently out of university and they're nowhere near as set up as me - although they will catch up."

Whitehead's younger brother has just finished his apprenticeship and has gone to the south of France to do up villas with a group of Kiwis and Australians. "Builders are needed everywhere. You can earn good money if you're hard-working, skilled and a good problem-solver."

Whitehead left school at 16, did a pre-trade course at Auckland's Unitec, then got an apprenticeship. "There I found my world. It just fitted for me."

He began on $6 an hour while friends were earning $10 labouring. Four years later he was earning $20 per hour while their wages had increased fractionally. Building appealed to Whitehead because he wanted to use his hands and work with timber.

"I really like the idea of going home each night knowing I've achieved something, and people are living in homes we've built."

Plumber Ben Tauevihi feels similarly. The 22-year-old sits his qualifying exam in August after three years training with Roydon Griffiths in Onehunga.

"There is something about seeing the finished job and feeling proud you did it with your own hands."

He likes the variety plumbing offers, such as designing drainage systems, gasfitting and roofing: "There is so much more to plumbing than toilets."

He suggests less academic secondary students have a look at apprenticeships: "You do something practical, you start earning - although it isn't much to start with - and end up with a trade."

According to North Shore Career Services school liaison officer Astrid Van Holten, there is an international shortage of tradespeople.

And industry training organisations (ITOs) say they're struggling to get young people.

Skill shortages are most acute in construction, says Apprenticeship Training Trust (plumbing) training manager Graham Owen, who has 35 employers wanting apprentices. Some have been waiting 12 months. Roofing, building and electrical companies are also waiting.

Van Holten feels there is confusion about what apprenticeships offer these days, and strong parental preference for tertiary study.

When asked, students often know little about apprenticeship options, don't realise they can get a qualification while earning money, or see it as low-status, manual and dirty work.

Apprentice starting wages are another issue that puts young people off, says Owen.

"Earning $7 or $8 an hour is good considering you get full training and come out three to four years later debt-free and earning $22 an hour. Compare that to university graduate friends who come out with $30,000-$40,000 student loans after studying. Plumbers do really well. Take a look at the houses that plumbers live in and the cars and boats they own."

Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) chief executive Pieter Burghout feels the growth of information technology initially affected people's attitudes to apprenticeships. "If your job didn't have a keyboard attached to it," he says, "then schools didn't push you that way. This is now changing."

This year the BCITO had 25 per cent growth in apprentice numbers. The introduction of higher-level qualifications, improved marketing of the industry, and better resourcing of staff looking after apprentices are making a difference, says Burghout.

Over the last three years the Government has been trying to attract young people into trades through the Modern Apprenticeships scheme for 16 to 20-year-olds, which offers mentoring and other support within apprenticeships. At the end of March there were 5102 apprentices signed up, and the goal is 6000 by December, says Tertiary Education Commission Auckland enterprise co-ordinator David McLeod-Jones.

However Onehunga High School career adviser Lorraine Jackson is critical of Modern Apprenticeships' high entry requirements. "They want the above-average student. The ordinary chappie who is a hands-on type doesn't get a look-in unless they've completed a pre-apprenticeship course. This costs money."

McLeod-Jones acknowledges that Modern Apprenticeships are aiming higher. "Trades work is more specialised now, requiring higher academic levels."

Pay packets

Apprentices start out learning on the job and usually earn between $5.40 and $7 hourly. Once qualified, and depending on experience and skills, electricians, panelbeaters and automotive engineers make $20,000 to $40,000.

Joiners, print finishers and cabinet makers tend to earn between $25,000 and $45,000. Newly-qualified bakers start on $30,000 to $45,000, and plumbers $35,000 to $45,000.

Newly-qualified carpenters can earn from $15 to $25 per hour.

Source: NZ Occupational Information Handbook