"Australia's structural skills shortage is one of the biggest constraints on our future growth and today's action by the Federal Government to support 11,000 additional training places is timely and well targeted," Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Heather Ridout said today.

"Small and medium sized companies in particular have found it hard during the downturn to maintain training budgets and especially apprenticeship numbers. Indeed, recent Ai Group research found that overall, the uptake of new apprentices is expected to be down by 10.6% over the current financial year and the number of apprentices in training will be down 5.9%. For SMEs the percentages are higher.

"Working with industry and focusing on existing workers will ensure that workforce development and productivity will be at the forefront, which is vital.

"Combined with the Government's recently announced additional support under the new apprenticeship Kickstart program, the measures will make a significant contribution to addressing future skills shortages," Mrs Ridout said.


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