This national research project involved analysing attrition from the trades and apprenticeships in Australia. The project had four stages:

1. A global literature review, was conducted using a standard co-joined key term search of national and electronic databases; (Download Report)
2. an original statistical analysis, examining ABS Census data for 1996, 2001 and 2006, ABS survey collections including Labour Force, Labour Mobility and Education and Work back to 1994 along with a significant quantity of National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) data on apprenticeships back to 1995; (Download Report)
3. national consultations (using structured interview techniques) with 39 organisations located in every State and Territory in Australia and included State and Territory Government agencies, employers, industry associations, employee associations, Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), Group Training Organisations (GTOs), Australian Technical Colleges (ATCs) and RTO peak bodies. A total of 100 individuals were consulted during this stage. Focus groups were also run with 40 ex-tradespeople in Sydney nd Melbourne and with tradespeople and apprentices in Perth; (Download Report)
4. a final report summarising the research effort’s salient findings. (Download Report).

The research project found that that attrition from the trades is largely a natural phenomenon and has positive as well as negative outcomes for the trades and the broader labour market (for instance, mobility out of the trades supplies other occupations with much-needed skilled workers). Despite this, the significant number of tradespeople who leave their trade by the time they are 23 years old is a cause for concern. The project found that, in general, tradespeople leave their trade for a number of reasons, most of which are likely to be related to personal choice or lifestyle/health issues. Almost a third of exits from the trades are due to leaving the workforce (for example, retiring).

This kind of attrition is unlikely to be affected by government policy. Apprentice attrition is high, and relatively low apprentice wages are a major factor in this (especially in a resources boom). Many stakeholders also see mismatched employer/apprentice expectations and lack of flexibility in the training structure as influential. Around a third of the trades workforce do not have formal trades qualifications, and stakeholders consulted agreed that employers are willing, in the current economic climate, to hire tradespeople on the basis of competence rather than qualifications. Stakeholder support for pre-apprenticeships and school-based apprenticeships was strong as these were seen to produce better-prepared, more committed apprentices.