3.1 Public Sector Employment

The reduction in apprentices employed at all levels of Government has had a major impact on over-all apprenticeship levels. The table below shows that Government now plays only a minor role in employing apprentices. The NSW Minister for Public Works and Services confirmed this, saying

“...the DPWS is no longer a big employer of day labour and, subsequently, apprentices, those changes happened well over a decade ago.” (Building Australia, July 1999, p. 12).

Group training companies have, to some extent, filled the void left by Government.

The situation is worse in Victoria. In the mid 1980s the Victorian public sector employed around one in eight of all apprentices taken on, while the figure is now less than one in a hundred. Total apprenticeship commencements have fallen faster than the national rate, with reductions of 46% in Victoria and 28% nationally. (all figures from Manufacturing Jobs, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union publication – undated)

Table 4: Apprentices and Trainees by employer category (as a percentage of the total number) 1997.
	Goverment Business	Local Gov’t	State Gov’t	Commonwealth Gov’t	Group Training Co
Carpenters & Joiners	-	1.1	2	-	28.4
Painters, Decorators & Signwriters	-	1.2	1	-	25.9
Plasterers	-	-	-	-	20.1
Plumbers	-	1.2	1.2	.1	19.6
Roof Slaters & Tilers	-	-	-	-	3.3

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