Post Covid-19 lockdown, thousands of people flock to join the construction industry

Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Brick and block laying apprentice Jacob Morris of Greytown took up the free trades training offer late last year.

This time just under a year ago construction industry employers were staring at a possible economic calamity and put the brakes on training.

Now they’re taking on more trainees than ever, thanks to a booming sector and over $1 billion in government tertiary education grants.

The number of people taking up free vocational training and apprenticeships under the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) has topped 100,000 since last July.

About a third of those were in the construction sector, with the next most popular areas primary industries (18 per cent) and community support (17 per cent).

Samantha Buck of Inspire decorating company in Masterton said they took on an extra two apprentices thanks to the Apprentice Boost scheme.

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Samantha Buck, of Masterton-based decorating company Inspire, said schemes such as TTAF and Apprentice Boost helped them decide to take on more apprentices.

“This time last year we were talking about whether we would be having to make redundancies with Covid.”

The last half of 2020 and beginning of 2021 shows a dramatic increase in the number of people taking up trades training through the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation BCITO.

Buck said finding skilled labour was a big issue before the pandemic as trades trainees were not coming through from secondary school.

“Now being able to nab them and confidently say we can support you through your apprenticeship has been massive for us. It meant that we took on another two apprentices on top of the ones we already had.”

Education minister Chris Hipkins said the investment in trades training is resulting in a big uptake in apprentices.

Brick and block laying apprentice Jacob Morris, of Greytown, started an apprenticeship late last year after working as a labourer.

He said the lockdown last year reinforced his decision to get a trade and with the building industry booming he thought there was a strong future in construction.

Master Builders New Zealand chief executive David Kelly said the training programmes deserved a big tick, but they would still take time to make a dent in the industry skill shortages.

“There’s been an explosion in work, and we’re definitely short of experienced tradespeople across the board. So the apprentice numbers are really encouraging… but it doesn’t solve the problem immediately,” he said.

Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) chief executive Toby Beaglehole said a year on from lockdown, they had more apprentices in training (18,000) than ever before.

The Government’s budget last year provided over a $1 billion in funding to additional tertiary education enrolments ($334m), free trades training ($320m) and for retaining and continuing to train apprentices ($412m).

The initial free trades training scheme (TTAF) extended to the end of 2022 and covered primary industries, construction, community support, manufacturing, mechanical and electrical engineering and road transport.

Education minister Chris Hipkins said the schemes were a response to the impact of Covid-19.

“We know as a result of Covid-19, many New Zealanders are looking to retrain and gain new skills, and employers in key sectors will need more skilled people.”

Over 10,000 employers have taken up the Apprenticeship Boost scheme which helped with costs of employing 21,000 trainees since July.

Employers got up to $1000 a month for first year apprentices and $500 a month for second years.