Modern approach to age-old scheme

Apprenticeships have been reborn for the 21st century, reports ESTELLE SARNEY.

At the age of 15, Glen Gibbons spent his weekends sweeping out hangers at his local airfield, just to be around planes and the people who flew them.

Four years later, he is the first young New Zealander to gain a modern apprenticeship in aeronautical engineering. He is currently learning how to maintain Iroquois helicopters, and will then move through airforce Hercules, Orions, whisper jets and a range of other aircraft until he graduates with a National Certificate in Aeronautical Engineering in three years' time.

He's getting paid an hourly rate, and won't owe a cent in student loans.

"I'll be able to take my skills overseas for my OE as well", says Gibbons. "Planes are planes anywhere in the world".

Gibbons is one of about 1300 young people aged 16 to 21 who have become part of the Government-run Modern Apprenticeships scheme since it started a year ago.

Administered by Skill New Zealand, it aims to plug skill gaps in the economy and open doors to systematic industry training for young people.

As at December 1999, just 10 per cent of the 56,000 people in training organised by industry training organisations (ITOs) were aged under 20.

The Government is pouring $42 million into the scheme over four years, with an additional $23m going to the Industry Training Fund to subsidise trainees' costs.

As more employers come on board, the scheme is gathering momentum and should have 3000 young people in training by next March.

The key difference between modern apprenticeships and the traditional type is the role of co-ordinators, usually a member of the relevant ITO who matches applicants with employers, administers the training and acts as a go-between over any problems that may arise.

Contracted by Skill New Zealand, they protect the Government's investment by making sure apprentices are right for the job, get through their training and are not being used as slave labour by employers.

Gillian Anderson, aged 19, is doing a Hamilton-based telecommunications apprenticeship with Downer Connect and says her co-ordinator, Ian Nunn of the Electrical Training Company, has been "really helpful".

"He organised my night class training and is always available if I have any questions or problems, such as what details I have to keep in my log book".

Anderson's employer, Patrick Evans-McLeod, has found the inclusion of a co-ordinator in the apprentice equation has taken a lot of work out of his hands.

By April, Nunn had filled his quota of modern apprentices for the second half of this year, and says the scheme is "changing the image of trades being for dumbos.

"We use newspaper advertising, school and polytech visits and career expos to counter the misinformation that you have to go to university to get anywhere.

"Youngsters are seeing that tradespeople can earn just as much as lawyers or doctors, sometimes more.

"I've had no trouble finding applicants who are really keen. The employers have been a bit more hesitant, but are gaining enthusiasm".

Men do dominate the scheme - they make up 93 per cent of modern apprentices - but this is due to most of the industries taking them on being historically male-dominated.

Sue Williams of Skill New Zealand hopes to improve the balance with the introduction of apprenticeships in industries such as hospitality.

"We're also trying to present modern apprenticeships as a way to gain more than a national certificate to level three or four on the National Qualifications Framework", says Williams.

"Carpentry, for example, may include a computer course for those wanting to run their own business or go into management.

When it comes to selling the idea to employers, Williams says they have only encountered a handful who reject it on the basis that there is no financial subsidy involved - employers pay the apprentices, or are invoiced for wages and off-site training fees by the co-ordinating ITO.

"Their argument is more often 'Why should I take on a young person with the inexperience and risks involved when I could employ an experienced person with life skills'?

"The co-ordinators talk through the advantages of gaining new blood, especially in some industries in which the average age of workers is about 50".

TODAY'S APPRENTICES

Of the 1212 modern apprentices in training by June 30 this year:-

* 74 per cent were Pakeha, 20 per cent Maori, 3 per cent Pacific peoples and 2 per cent from other ethnic groups.

* 93 per cent were male.

Apprenticeships on offer:-

Aeronautical engineering; agriculture; aluminium joinery; baking; boatbuilding; building and construction; contracting; dairy manufacturing; electricity supply; electrotechnology; engineering; flooring; food processing; forest industries; furniture; horticulture; hospitality; motor engineering; printing; public sector; road transport; seafood; sports turf; telecommunications.