New figures show that fewer than 157,000 people began traineeships or apprenticeships during calendar 2018, a decline of 3.7% year-on-year. The number of people completing such courses in 2018 fell by 5.5% in 2018, and crashed 43.5% over the last five years. Jenny Lambert of the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged Skills Minister Michaelia Cash to take action to address the decline. From The AFR:
“These latest apprenticeship stats show that action taken to date has not been sufficient to address the decline. Clearly the arrangements between governments through the Skilling Australians Fund are not working,” Ms Lambert said.
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
