A lack of emphasis on the trades is affecting the quality of potential apprentices, according to an engineering boss in Southland.

Sheet Metalcraft Ltd managing director Nathan Barker said the industry needed to find a way to “cast the net wider”, to attract more young people, and prepare them better for the realities of the work.

The trades were already a career path for students that “battled at school academically, and are far more hands on”, but there was an increasing need for tradespeople with specialist skills, Barker said.

“As the trade evolves, and the possibilities to integrate more technology and specialised strands of the trade require tradespeople, the skill level of those in the trade needs to match the opportunities available.”

Barker said some high schools had started engaging students with workplaces earlier.

However the amalgamation of Southern Institute of Technology, Competenz and Te Pūkenga had been “fairly disruptive” to the apprenticeship training scheme, he said.

The lack of organised allocation to block courses, which meant travelling to and studying in areas outside of Southland, was an extra cost to the employer, making the “idea of hosting apprentices even less attractive”.

“While this has mostly been resolved now in Southland with the introduction of mixed block courses, the cost of having an apprentice is not getting any less,” he said.

“A lot of our apprentices are able to own their first home, travel or own a boat before the age of 25. The model of Earn As You Learn needs more promotion,” Barker said.

Companies hiring apprentices were also not training them enough to be job-ready, according to 4Trades manager Matthew Hogan.

The trades industry’s complaint about the poor quality of apprenticeships was the result of an emphasis more on theory than practical skills now, and a lack of on-the-job training, Hogan said.

“It really falls back to the employer to take the time and effort to help train these apprentices.”

The business owners needed to think of apprenticeships as an investment in their business, Hogan said.

“Businesses complain that [apprentices are] not a skilled tradesperson by the time they’ve done three-and-a-half years. But all the practical skills that these businesses need are learnt on the job.

“One of the issues which is making this difficult is the lack of skilled tradespeople to teach younger staff.”

He also said that people interested in the trades could take up pre-trade certifications to fast-track their entry into trade apprenticeships, “because [then] they already have a decent skill set, rather than starting at the very beginning”.