Apprentice bonus attracts young builders

More than 350 young people have signed on as building apprentices since a $2000 bonus became available last Wednesday for the first 10,000 apprentices who sign up.

Another 60 have already signed up with the Skills Organisation for specialist trades such as plumbing, drainlaying, roofing, scaffolding and rigging.

The bonuses - $2000 each for apprentices and their employers in "priority" building-related trades and $1000 each in other trades - were due to start from April 1 to boost training nationally for the rebuilding of Christchurch.

Employment Minister Steven Joyce brought the start date forward to last Wednesday after training bodies reported that many employers were holding back until after April 1 to get the bonus.

The rush since last Wednesday means the 10,000 bonus places may now all be snapped up this year, rather than continuing into next year as the Tertiary Education Commission originally planned.

"Apparently their initial estimates were that it would take about 18 months, but because of the uptake they have reduced that time period to about 12 months," said Industry Training Federation policy manager Shaun Twaddle.

Building and Constructing Industry Training Organisation chief executive Ruma Karaitiana said he aimed to sign up 4000 of the 10,000 new apprentices this year in his sector alone.

"The Government is expecting the 10,000 places will last till the first quarter of next year. I doubt that. I think, if this is the response in the construction sector only, we might see them all used up by the end of this year."

He said 351 signed on in the first three working days after the March 6 starting date, compared with about 200 a month last year.

If he signs up 4000 by year's end as expected, building apprenticeships will be back to their pre-recession peak.

He said almost all the new signups were split evenly between Christchurch and Auckland.

"We do have reasonable levels out of Waikato and Taranaki as well, but provincial New Zealand is definitely not picking up yet."

He has a waiting list of 600 young people seeking apprenticeships.

"As soon as an employer contacts us we have someone to match them pretty well straight away," he said.

"This is a great time for a young person to be thinking about entering the industry, and for employers, if they are thinking about taking on an apprentice some time in the future, this is the time to do it.

"The other reality is that everybody will be looking for people at the same time so it's definitely the early bird catches the worm."

Garry Fissenden of the Skills Organisation, which trains apprentices in specialist trades, said his agency had signed 60 new apprentices since March 6.

Tim Densem of the Electricity Supply Industry Training Organisation, another priority area qualifying for the $2000 bonus, said new subdivisions normally accounted for about a third of his sector's work and trainee numbers were still 30 per cent below pre-recession levels, with about 100 young people on his waiting list.

"The Government, and the country, are paying for unemployed young New Zealanders who are not being trained, and companies just say, 'I'll go across to the Philippines and bring in someone who is a trained worker,"' he said.

"This will change that. It will help them take on apprentices."

On the web www.tec.govt.nz

- Simon Collins of the NZ Herald