| Media item | |
| | Industry still short of 40,000 technicians | GoAuto News,
Sandringham
by Neil Dowling
| 13 Sep 2023 | | General News - Page 35 - 580 words - ID 1929480817 - Photo: Yes - Type: News Item - Size: 552.00cm2 | |
Skilled trades demand is growing as 47 per cent of Australian workshops seek technicians
AUSTRALIA'S automotive industry has a continuing and entrenched skill shortage that is not being addressed by the government, says one of Australia's peak bodies.
The chief executive of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce and also the CEO of the MTAA, Geoff Gwilym, told GoAutoNews Premium that the recent Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) and researcher Fifth Quadrant survey had no solution to the ongoing skills problems.
The survey said that the automotive service and repair industry is short over 40,000 workers, consisting of roughly 27,000 qualified technicians, and 13,500 apprentices.
This equates to every workshop in the country being short one technician, with one in two workshops short an apprentice.
"It's been like this for at least two decades, if not longer. We had major skill shortages before COVID and subsequently, they just became more entrenched," he said.
"The automotive industry still faces challenges around how it competes with, and beats, other industries to attract new people. And it's not doing a bad job, by the way, because as this survey shows, there are still more automotive businesses being created year-on-year.
"That's not surprising given the growing population and growing car sales. But while this is going on, all the labour available has now been employed." Mr Gwilym said that the recent move by the federal government to increase the temporary skilled migrant payment to $70,000 is "in my view, going to lead to a slowdown in the transition of skilled migrants into Australia".
"That's because a lot of workshops just can't afford to pay temporary overseas skilled migrants $70,000 on entry," he said.
"The worst affected will be regional areas which already pay technicians less than their metropolitan counterparts." Mr Gwilym said the survey did not have a solution to the problem.
"I think that the state MTAs and VACC which are together the biggest trainers and employers of automotive apprentices in the county should continue to try and promote the industry, in schools and in the community," he said.
"But putting people in schools to help promote automotive is a very expensive exercise and so is running campaigns, either on social media TV or radio, to try and attract kids and promote the automotive industry.
"Unless we can attract more kids into automotive that would have ordinarily gone in either into another trade or to university then we will continue to have the skill shortage." Technician salary levels were another focus of the survey, given this is an area of conjecture within the industry.
Overwhelmingly, and encouragingly, technicians are being paid above award rates. Master technicians earn an average salary of $83,000 excluding superannuation, while the average salary for a firstyear apprentice is $36,000.
While salary levels do continue to present staffing challenges for workshops, the survey has shown the use of non-cash benefits to entice and retain staff are being underutilised.
The results show that non-cash benefits at workshops, which include industry training opportunities, flexible hours, and the use of the workshop out of hours are not offered by one-in-three workshops.
"These opportunities are available at low cost, and can play a role in staff retention strategies," the survey said.
The survey found that one in every two Australian workshops has lost a technician in the past year and 47 per cent of all workshops are now hiring for technicians as the nation's shortage of auto industry skills continues.
Caption Text:
Geoff Gwilym
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