The Federal Government has announced new plans to offer training services to over 100,000 unemployed Australians ahead of next week’s labour force data, which is expected to show another rise in unemployment.
President of the Enterprise Registered Training Organisation of Australia, Chris Butler says the extra $300 million for more training places should deliver a benefit to training providers.
“I’m sure that if the funding is appropriate to providers, then those registered with appropriate training organisations would have an advantage and these places will be taken up by them.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, along with the Council of Australian Governments, said yesterday at a meeting in Darwin that state and territory governments will extend a program designed to train young people for the workforce at large.
“Workers who have been retrenched as a consequence of this global recession have lost their jobs through no fault of their own,” Rudd said.
“Acting to support young Australians who are finding it hard to enter the labour market… represents an important intervention by government.”
The program, which is not industry specific, will guarantee workers made redundant between 2009 and 2011 a place in a government program that provides a vocational education and training qualification.
State and territory governments will also provide funding for extra places in the program, with retrenched workers given priority. The training is an extension of benefits recently granted to retrenched workers, which made it easier to obtain unemployment benefits and access to job placement agencies.
Queensland premier Anna Bligh also said the plan will help prepare the country for the inevitable economic recovery.
“We know only too well how quickly this country can find itself in a situation of serious skills shortage.”
But the announcements weren’t welcomed by all, with Opposition employment participation spokesman Andrew Southcott saying the scheme doesn’t go far enough.
“Training for training’s sake, without a job at the end of it, is cruel to the unemployed,” he said.
“The experience around the world is that a skills-first approach for the unemployed tends to be very expensive and you have poor outcomes.”
Senior policy officer of the Australian Council of Social Services, Peter Davidson, told The Australian Financial Review that paid work experience would be more beneficial to retrenched workers.
“We welcome the offer of a training guarantee for this group because those with limited skills will really struggle in the present market,” he said.
“However, there is a gap in the assistance for unemployed people in that they don’t have access to some form of paid work experience. Often training works best when linked with that.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
