Growing Australia's construction workforce is one of the most significant challenges facing residential building, and is critical to addressing the nation's housing shortage, according to HIA Chief Executive Industry & Policy Simon Croft.
HIA welcomed the Federal Government's continued focus on skills, training and apprenticeships at a Canberra media event with Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles.
"Australia cannot build more homes without more skilled tradespeople, and it was encouraging to hear Minister Giles reinforce the importance of apprenticeships as a pathway to secure, rewarding careers while supporting the nation's housing ambitions," Croft said.
Recent results from the Government's Key Apprenticeship Program demonstrated the value of targeted support measures in attracting more people into residential construction careers.
"The latest data shows an additional 3,400 apprentice commencements in the housing construction stream of the Key Apprenticeship Program during July alone, bringing the total number of commencements to more than 36,000 since the program began just over a year ago," Croft said.
"That is a strong monthly result and demonstrates that practical support for apprentices and employers can make a real difference in attracting new entrants to the industry."
Croft said initiatives that improve apprenticeship commencements and completions are essential if Australia is to meet its housing supply ambitions.
"Getting more people into apprenticeships is important, but equally important is ensuring they complete their training and become qualified tradespeople," Croft said.
"Builders and tradespeople invest significant time and resources into training the next generation of tradies, and policies that support apprentices to start, stay and succeed are critical."
While welcoming the positive momentum, Croft said the residential building industry continues to face intense competition for skilled labour from other sectors of the economy.
"The increase in apprenticeship commencements is encouraging, but residential builders continue to compete for skilled workers with major infrastructure projects, energy projects and the rapidly expanding data centre sector," Croft said.
"The reality is that every sector is drawing from the same pool of skilled tradespeople.
"Residential building is competing against large-scale projects that often have the capacity to attract workers away from housing construction.
"If Australia is to achieve its housing targets, we need sustained growth in the overall skilled workforce. Housing cannot be left competing for labour without a coordinated national approach to skills development and workforce planning.
"The answer is not moving workers between sectors.
"The answer is growing the overall pool of skilled tradespeople available to support Australia's housing, infrastructure and economic development needs."
Croft said the discussion with local builders and apprentices highlighted the importance of maintaining a long-term focus on workforce development.
"The recent growth in apprenticeship numbers is a positive sign, but there remains a significant gap between the number of workers entering training today and the workforce that will be required to meet future housing demand," Croft said.
"Government, industry and training providers must continue working together to encourage apprenticeships, improve completion rates and ensure employers are supported to train the workforce needed to build the homes Australians are demanding."
