Young apprentices gain life skills through Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan

Three of Canberra’s newest apprentices have been given the opportunity for a bright future thanks to the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan and Defence Housing Australia’s (DHA) Apprenticeship Support Scheme.

Nathan Selwood, Luke Gilbert and Matthew Crowe recently secured carpentry apprenticeships straight after finishing high school, and can already see the benefits.

All three young apprentices have commented on the ease of getting into the program and the opportunity that it has given them.

“I applied to three different places and managed to pick one up pretty quickly,” said Nathan.

“It’s my future I guess, and it’s really what I want to be doing for a while.”

“It’s given me a stepping stone towards my future, so it’s been really good. It really sets into stone to me what I want to do,” said Luke.

The three new apprentices are learning not only carpentry skills, but general life skills they will be able to transfer to any profession.

For Matt, the position is about more than just the trade skills.

“It taught me how to get up at 6am,” Matt laughed.

Don Rail, the field service manager for Master Builders Association group training, enjoys giving them all the skills they need to go out into the workforce and do a good job.

”Yeah it’s a buzz, ‘cause it’s great when I have young people come up to me when they’ve finished their apprenticeship and they thank us,” Don said.

“I say well you don’t need to thank me because all we do is basically give them access to life skills and what they do with it is their business.”

Nathan, Luke and Matthew may not have been as fortunate if it wasn’t for the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan (NB-ESP) and the extra construction work it has created for DHA.

DHA is building 802 new Defence houses under the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan, and the Apprenticeship Support Scheme is supporting the creation of 20 new apprenticeship places. DHA is subsidising 50 per cent of the apprentices wage to encourage employers to take on new apprentices.

Don Rail cut his intake of carpenters by half last year, and now, with the benefits of extra construction work created under the Economic Stimulus Plan, he has created more jobs for apprentices this year.

“In November last year we looked at what was happening world wide and we decided to hold back a little bit,” said Don.

“It benefited us in the fact that this year we could put more young people on. It gives us more exposure, getting more employers to employ young people,” Don said.

“It’s a win-win situation.”

The Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan Defence housing construction program will continue until June 2011, providing additional opportunities for many construction workers and apprentices in the coming year.

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