Local firms have mixed feelings about new government packages launched recently to encourage trade businesses to hire apprentices as part of the COVID-19 recovery funding. 

The Apprenticeship Boost and Regional Apprenticeship Programme aim to increase the number of people in trade apprenticeships. The Regional Apprenticeship Programme includes $40M to support up to 1,000 regional apprenticeships.

It will subsidise the cost of hiring an apprentice by up to $40,000, with a wage subsidy of up to $16,000 for the first year of training, up to $8,000 for the second year and additional funding for business support and pastoral care.

"This government recognises the challenges people and firms are facing with this one-in-a-100 year shock. We need to do everything we can to keep New Zealanders working, keep them training and help people to find work, particularly in areas where there are skills shortages," minister of education Chris Hipkins said.

Without initiatives like Apprenticeship Boost and the Regional Apprenticeship Programme, New Zealand risks facing a “massive” skills shortage on the other side of the pandemic, he said.

Breen Wanaka HR manager Nina Klemm said the packages were “a huge step in the right direction [to] support trades”.

Breen, first established in 1939, has its head office in Alexandra but is also established in Cromwell, Wanaka, Dunedin, Twizel and Oamaru. Nina said the Regional Apprenticeship Programme would likely allow Breen to bring on “a few more apprentices” across the regions it serves. 

Breen Wanaka apprentice builder Vienna Kupa last year beat many hopefuls to take one of just four national IAG Apprentice of the Year awards.

“We have a long history of supporting apprenticeship programmes as we see this extra funding boost from the government as a valuable way to encourage new workers into [the] construction sector,” Nina said. 

For Riley McCallum at Wanaka Auto Electrical and Mechanical news of the package was a little more bittersweet.  

“Something I have been asking is why free apprenticeship fees [weren't] introduced years and years ago to improve the skill shortage for our trade industries,” he said. 

“Now they have introduced this when businesses are at their knees trying to save the positions. They are not trying to employ new staff and take on another or a new apprentice.”

Riley said substantial fees had been paid to commit to the company’s existing apprentices, and the package was a case of a great idea with the “wrong timing”.

“The rest of 2020 will be very challenging for all the trades,” he said. 

NZ Motor Trade Association (MTA) strategy and advocacy manager Greig Epps said while the package was positive, he hoped the government would “have the courage of its convictions and make it permanent”.

Greig said the financial cost was the single biggest obstacle to a business wanting to provide apprentice training.

“Our members know apprentices are the future of our industry and the economy,” he said. “They want to take them on but they need the strong, clear and especially the ongoing support from the government to make it viable.”

Apprentice Boost and the Regional Apprenticeship Programme, announced in June, are two of a series of initiatives created in the post-COVID environment aimed to reduce the cost of vocational training in high demand areas.

PHOTO: Supplied