Stood-down apprentices fear industry won't bounce back

In her second year, the 25-year-old from Perth is one of many apprentices and trainees whose training has come to a grinding halt and left wondering what her future holds.

Analysis by the Global Apprentice Network Australia indicated that only 468 apprenticeship vacancies were advertised across Australia in April, a drop of two-thirds from April 2019 and almost 75 per cent from January.

The biggest drop from January was in Ms Skilbeck's industry of hospitality, travel and tourism, with vacancies down over 97 per cent.

While vacancies in the sports, recreation, hair and beauty services categories fell by 94 per cent.

NSW and Victoria were advertising 75 per cent and 80 per cent fewer vacancies respectively.

The ACT had the smallest drop, with a decline of only 50 per cent, while Tasmania had a 100 per cent drop in advertised vacancies, with none advertised throughout April.

Ms Skilbeck was due to start the third year of her apprenticeship in June, however, the drop in tourism saw occupancy rates at the hotel she worked "plummet" amid travel bans and restrictions.

"It was really hard, I tried to find other work in anything and I couldn't ... it took me about a week to realise this is what it's going to be like for a while," Ms Skilbeck said.

Prior to being stood down, Ms Skilbeck was already accessing a youth allowance specifically for apprentices and is now eligible for JobKeeper.

She is well aware of the lack of job vacancies.

"There are no apprentice jobs on Seek or any of those pages, you can apply for other chef positions but because of the influx of people out of work there's no chance for an apprentice to actually get another job."

Holding grave concerns about how the industry will recover, Mr Skilbeck said it's hard to say whether she will be able to complete her apprenticeship and is now considering other career options.

"I think pubs will be OK and maybe small restaurants will get enough people coming back but anyone who works in a winery or a hotel, where tourism is the biggest source of income - they are not going to recover as quickly.

"I don't want to but there's a good chance I'll end up changing industries until the hospitality industry can facilitate finishing my certificate how I want to.

"Everyone is going to bounce back fine but we're not, we're going to have a massive shortage if we don't pick back up because, realistically, all of these subsidies the government is offering are only for six months - what happens then?"

One employer, Billy Smith, of Ace Kitchen and Cabinetry in Ballan, Victoria, credits the federal government's apprentice wage subsidy scheme for enabling him to hang on to his apprentices.

Eligible small business employers and hosts can apply for a reimbursement of 50 per cent of the wages paid to eligible apprentices from January 1 to September 30.

Mr Smith's business employs two local apprentices at different levels of their qualifications.

"It's made a big difference in keeping the boys on," Mr Smith said.

The wage subsidy, he said, has given his business some reassurance - at least until September.

"When this first started happening, I don't think anyone knew whether we were going to be working or be in business the next day - it was really up in the air when the restrictions started," Mr Smith said.

"But when the federal government came out and started announcing these packages it became very clear that they were really wanting to invest in apprentices and employment in general for everybody."

The swift action was appreciated, Mr Smith said, buying the business some much-needed time.

"If these subsidies didn't come in, there would have been some very hard choices to make on reducing our employees.

"We've got work that was already booked in but obviously during the past few weeks inquiries have just started to totally drop off."

At this stage of the year, the business would normally have worked booked in and quoted until September.

"You're going to really start to feel the effects in probably another couple of months, when the work starts to dry up, however, with the announcements the federal government has made they've given you a bit of security until September - go out, get some more work and try and keep things moving along."

His business has always employed apprentices.

"In the 16 years we've been running our business the whole way through we've had apprentices ... investing the time into them makes a big difference and being local as well."

Gary Workman, CEO of the Global Apprenticeship Network (Australia) said the fall in vacancies is bad news for kids starting out in their careers as well as terrible news for Australia's economic prospects.

"Apprenticeships and traineeships are needed to ensure that businesses can access a skilled workforce and contribute to our national prosperity," Mr Workman said.