We train more than half tomorrows' tradies and employ over 80,000 and apprentices every year. Our biggest challenge is that we're going to need about 300,000 new and skilled workers over the next 5 years. 

300,000 in 5 - Industry Driven
Skills & Jobs Solutions

Master Builders believes that by building and construction a greater say we can deliver an 300,000 skilled and job ready workers over the next 5 years. The only way for us to deliver this target is for the Government to partner with industry to deliver better skills solutions and boost job outcomes by trusting builders and construction employers and funding programs driven by industry that we will know will work. 
We want the Federal Government to: 

• Promise to deliver 300,000 skilled and job ready building and construction workers over the next 5 years. 
• Sustainable funding for not-for-profit vocational education and employment services that give more people with skills a greater chance of getting a job. 
• Restore funding to support employers to take on more apprentices. 
• Help industry to run a range of skills programs from targeting young people and parents at school, helping up-skill existing workers, and better harnessing the experience of tradies at the end of their careers. 
• Implement solutions that we know work well, such as funding pre-apprenticeship programs that people be job ready and productive right from day one. 

Reform Vet System To
Make It Clear & Simple 

The 'shared nature of Vocational Education and Training (VET) between levels of government has turned it into an ineffective and complex quagmire that is so confusing to parents and young people. There are different and often competing programs being rolled-out around the country but there is no strategic, long term thinking that actually aims to provide long-term solutions. The Federal Government must: 

• Be the leader in driving a sustained and meaningful change to the VET system and removes the stifling red-tape, avoids duplication and fixes the complex skills framework development process. 
• Recognise that industry RTOs meet and exceed TAFE standards and have a demonstrated history in producing skilled and job-ready workers bu guranteeing fair funding from all levels of government. 

Raise The Profile Of
A Trades Career 

For too long a vocational and trades career has been seen as inferior to a university degree. Combined with a complex VET system, people either don't know how rewarding a trades career can be  or if they do, it's simply too hard for many parents and students to know where to go. We want the Federal Government to: 

Make a sustained and strategic effort raise the profile of VET and change community perceptions so that people understand that a trades career is actually a better option than the conventional university path. 

Work with industry to change the perceptions of teachers, students and parents about the benefits of vocational education and boost awareness of the rewards associated with a career in building and construction - high wages, stable full-time employment, and skills for life.