The Australian Apprenticeships Roundtable provides a forum for Australian Apprentices to inform Ministers and governments about issues affecting their training and careers.
This is the only forum that gives a voice specifically to Australian Apprentices as key users of the national training system and will result in up-to-date information direct from apprentices and trainees about their current experience of vocational pathways, challenges and successes and to inform future policy and program development.
The Roundtable will be conducted in 2008, commencing with a three-day working meeting in Canberra on 2 to 4 June 2008. A subsequent meeting will be held in September and the Roundtable will culminate in a presentation of key issues to industry and government in Darwin in November 2008.
The 31 Roundtable Members have been selected from a diverse range of Australian Apprentices across trades and non-trades; large, medium and small enterprises; school-age, post-school, mid-career and mature-age; different stages in their training; urban, regional and remote areas of Australia plus apprentices and trainees undertaking their training with TAFEs, private training organisations, group training organisations or institutional –based training.
Australian Apprentices are a key element of the Australian Government’s commitment to maintain a skilled and flexible workforce that will continue to build Australia’s economy. Australian Apprenticeships provide an industry-based approach to training, combining practical work with structured training, to give people a nationally recognised qualification.
Australian Apprentices are key clients of the Vocational Education and Training sector. There are currently over 400,000 people participating in Australian Apprenticeships and the government is seeking to increase this number to meet the changing skills needs of Australia’s workforce.
The purpose of the Roundtable is to provide a forum for Australian Apprentices to inform government about issues affecting their training and careers.
Outcomes for Government:
Outcomes for Roundtable Members:
The Roundtable will convene three times in 2008.
Members will first meet in June to identify key issues of concern to Australian Apprentices, prioritise the issues, determine a work plan and establish working groups to investigate and report on these issues.
A second meeting in September will provide an opportunity for working groups to share their findings and identify any new issues for further work.
The Roundtable will draw its work to a conclusion in November, when members will present their findings to government and industry in Darwin in November 2008 to coincide with vocational education and training activities including the Australian Training Awards.
The Roundtable comprises a broad range of Australian Apprentices.
A call for open applications was posted on the government's "Australian Apprenticeships" website and circulated throughout the national Australian Apprenticeships Centres network. In addition, Group Training Australia and the Industry Skills Councils were also invited to nominate individuals as were previous national awards winners.
The selection process has resulted in a Roundtable membership of 31 Australian Apprentices and reflects a broad set of experiences, including:
Members have either experienced a range of issues relevant to Australian Apprenticeships, or have demonstrated their ability to be able to consult others on their experiences, and to apply these experiences to the Roundtable.
In applying to be part of the Roundtable, members have demonstrated that they have an interest in bringing a broader perspective to the Roundtable deliberations, and applying a constructive approach to problem-solving, rather than solely representing their own personal agenda.