Page 2153 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2018
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Providing information, clarifying responsibilities under a national training contract, or supporting employers and their apprentices to work through simple misunderstandings can be the difference between an apprentice dropping out of their qualification—and potentially out of employment—or remaining in the job in training.
We are serious about encouraging people to follow through with their training, and the ACT is the only jurisdiction to provide a completion bonus for eligible students.
The youngest and potentially most vulnerable apprentices are those of school age. As a result the field officers prioritise visiting all Australian school-based apprentices within the first two months of their training contract being approved. Skills Canberra works closely with the Education Directorate and WorkSafe ACT to support our school-based apprentices and improve pathways for young people into vocational training and rewarding careers.
In addition to working directly with apprentices and employers, our field officers foster the collaborative and growing relationship between the ACT government and training providers, industry, schools, employment service providers and other stakeholders.
We understand assistance has to come in many forms, and we work closely with the Australian government to increase our capacity to support our apprentices and establish good habits. This means more mentoring programs and empowering apprentices to become role models in their industries.
The ACT is in the process of developing programs that emphasise the importance of wellbeing at work. This includes dealing with work stresses, starting tough conversations about mental health and making sure apprentices are aware that help will always be available.
CIT is the ACT’s largest provider of training for apprenticeships and traineeships and has a wonderfully broad base of courses in community services, information technology, health, construction, child care, hospitality and tourism. Given the importance of CIT as the public provider of VET in the ACT, the government has provided extensive support. This has allowed CIT to undertake a comprehensive range of quality improvement activities to support the delivery of quality training. These activities aim to ensure CIT is delivering skilled workers of the highest quality, and that apprentices and trainees have access to the supports they need to complete their training.
One of the initiatives implemented at CIT, and since rolled out to a number of private RTOs, has been the use of “My Profiling”. This mobile app streamlines assessment and reporting processes and allows apprentices, their employers and their training organisations to more easily track their ongoing progress. The ACT will continue to support CIT so that it remains the pre-eminent provider of high quality, cutting-edge training across the ACT and region.
In March this year I launched the women in trades grants program to help more Canberrans access training opportunities. The program will leverage the creativity of
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