Ideas@TheCentre
Training must lead to employment
The report Walk in My Shoes, released by Generation One on 23 December 2011, found that many Aboriginal people are trapped in a training cycle where they move from one training program to another without ever finding employment.
Generation One argues that what is needed is employer-directed training, where the training leads to a real job. This does not sound like rocket science. It is what apprenticeships have always done. But instead of funding more apprenticeships, the federal government has directed funding to Registered Training Providers (RTOs) to deliver training to Aboriginal people. These RTOs are given financial incentives to get bums on seats but are not held accountable for poor outcomes. There is rarely any proper evaluation of the effectiveness of these training programs.
The best way of assessing training is through work-based assessments, but it’s impossible to conduct such evaluations when the training never leads to employment.
One of the recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs report, Doing Time – Time for Doing: Indigenous Youth in the Criminal Justice System, was for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to provide financial incentives for employers to take on Indigenous apprentices.
The Commonwealth government has accepted that recommendation in principle, though it’s not clear what that means. Maybe ‘Yes, that sounds like a good idea but we can’t fund it.’
At the same time, some organisations provide work-based training without government assistance.
On my trip to Alice Springs last year, the manager of an Outstation Resource Service told me they eschew makeshift job schemes and wage subsidies; instead, they pay staff the going rate of $15 to $19 an hour for entry-level positions with the normal expectations of employment.
Employees who fail to turn up for work or don’t fulfil their job requirements are sacked.
This sends a clear message to workers and potential employees that there will be consequences if they don’t meet their employment responsibilities. But the policy is not so cut and dry. If sacked employees demonstrate a change in attitude towards work, they may be rehired.
The organisation exposes trainees to a variety of trades such as carpentry, plumbing and boiler making so they can make an informed choice about what trade they want to do an apprenticeship in. On completion of an apprenticeship, the organisation helps them start their own business. Since the program started seven years ago, 23 young Aboriginal people have become apprentices and role models for their communities.
The combination of support and real consequences that comes with work-based training is far superior to training programs designed to reward the provider. So why does the government keep funding them?
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
