Labour shortage sparks drive to get students into trades

Ross Metcalf of Viking shows a spot welder to John Hook (centre) and Joshua Cunning. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Viking Ironcraft owner Lester Smith says he has given up advertising for prospective engineering employees.

He never gets a response - just 23 per cent of jobs advertised for sheetmetal workers in New Zealand last year were filled.

And those who do reply simply don't fit the bill - a lack of the necessary skills is his most common gripe.

So yesterday Mr Smith opened his Te Atatu workshop to students from Rutherford High School, hoping the brief insight would encourage them to follow a career path in the engineering industry.

The scheme is part of the Tools4Work initiative by Competenz - the Engineering, Food and Manufacturing Industry Training Organisation - run in conjunction with secondary schools and workplaces to promote trades and apprenticeships.

Mr Smith hopes this will address the shortage of qualified engineers in the workplace.

"Everyone is complaining these days about plumbers, electricians and so on taking three days to show up and when they do they charge an arm and a leg," he said yesterday.

"Well, you have to ask why that is."

The Tools4Work scheme is developing a mechanical engineering qualification for inclusion in school curriculums from next year.

"It's pretty cool. It's a hands-on thing and you get to use a lot of different tools and machinery," said 15-year-old John Hook, who is considering a career as a fabrics or automotive engineer when he leaves school.

Competenz career development officer Thomas Knapp said the country's focus on the knowledge economy and the subsequent shift to information technology in the early 1990s was a big blow to the trades.

He said tertiary institutions were now favoured over apprenticeships although this could be due to a lack of understanding of what trades had to offer.

"People who take on engineering will most definitely get work and have a recognised qualification which will allow them to work anywhere."

Mr Smith said most apprentices earned about $45,000 after their fourth year and made more money than the average university graduate.

"Some kids about 21 [years old] are earning up to $60,000 a year - and don't have student loans either."

A Department of Labour survey showed New Zealand suffered a loss of more than 4600 tradespeople between 1997 and 2001.

Despite increases in the numbers training for trades, a survey of 14 trades completed last year showed acute shortages in all of them.

Census results from 1991, 1996 and 2001 showed the number of young people entering trades had fallen drastically. For instance, fitters and turners between 20 and 24 years old fell from nearly 1150 in 1991 to slightly more than 200 in 2001.