Our Plan to back Australia’s skilled workforce

The Coalition has a strong plan to back small businesses and builders, deliver more affordable housing, put skills and training back in schools and provide cost of living relief to apprentices and trainees.

Since Labor was elected, Australia has experienced a sharp decline in our national skills pipeline.

Under the previous Coalition Government, the number of apprentices and trainees reached record highs, yet this trend has collapsed under Labor.

In just three years, Australia has lost over 90,000 apprentices and trainees across the country and we have seen a 30 per cent drop in new starts for construction trades.

Labor has created the worst collapse in small business conditions and 30,000 builders and businesses have closed their doors.

This comes on top of the significant harm Labor is doing to critical sectors, like mining, manufacturing, forestry, fishing and agriculture. These industries continue to be crippled by Labor’s weaponisation of environment, industry, industrial relations and cultural heritage laws.

Industries are going offshore and sadly, for all Anthony Albanese’s talk of a Future Made in Australia, the opposite is true. Less is being made in Australia, and more is being made overseas.

Labor said their Fee-Free TAFE program would fix skills shortages and skill more Australians. But it just has not worked. The problem is Labor’s Fee-Free TAFE program is badly designed and poorly targeted. 

Australian taxpayers have spent over $1.5 billion to cover TAFE course fees, but have ended up with 90,000 fewer apprentices and trainees. Australia needs more apprentices, not fewer. 

We need the skills to get Australia back on track and deliver on strategic priorities in housing, national security, defence and the care sector.

The Coalition will re-energise the economy and deliver a strong and future-ready workforce.

Our plan will help Australians into training to get secure, well-paid jobs.

We will set a target to get 400,000 apprenticeships and traineeships across Australia and will support small and medium businesses to create 40,000 new apprenticeships each year.

We will ensure that every Australian – young or old, in the city or the bush – has the opportunity to gain the skills they need to get ahead.

The Coalition will focus on putting students back at the centre of the skills system. We want students to have better choices, empower them to study where they want to study and give them the skills that will get them into well-paid jobs.

The number of apprentices and trainees in-training under Labor

A Dutton Coalition Government will build a stronger workforce. We will:

• Build a new national network of Australian Technical Colleges, offering new pathways for students to fast track them to high-skilled and well-paying jobs in fields like housing and civil construction, defence, nuclear energy and the care economy.
• Return the number of apprentices and trainees across the country to 400,000.
• Support small and medium businesses, including builders and tradies, with $12,000 in wage support to help with the costs of putting on and training a new apprentice or trainee.
• Deliver a new Key Apprenticeship Program that will support eligible apprentices with between $5,000 and $10,000 on top of their wages, over the life of their apprenticeship, helping them with the costs of purchasing their tools and the cost of living.
• Deliver a new Skills in Schools Strategy to get more kids into trades and boost falling school graduation numbers.
• Support a sustainable skilled migration program in Australia.

Our plan will back Australians who want to learn a trade, build a career, and contribute to our national success.

Our Plan

1. Australian Technical Colleges

A Dutton Coalition Government will build the workforce we need to tackle Australia’s housing and construction challenges head-on. To help achieve this, we will deliver a once in a generation reform to our schools through building a new national network of Australian Technical Colleges.

Australian Technical Colleges are specialist skills schools for years 10-12 or 11-12. Students are enrolled in a School-based apprenticeship or traineeship as well as academic and business courses that lead to a Year 12 certificate.

We will deliver 12 new national Australian Technical Colleges to boost the number of kids doing school-based apprenticeships and traineeships across the country, learning construction, plumbing, electrical, and other high-demand trades essential to building more homes and delivering national infrastructure.

This is the start of a new direction for Australia’s education system and will give a new generation the opportunity to get a head-start on an in-demand job and help Australia secure the workforce we need to get back on track.

Australian Technical Colleges will be a new pathway of choice for ambitious young Australians, fast tracking them into high-skilled and well-paying jobs. It will also help students who are disengaged with traditional teaching or respond better to hands-on learning.

Australian Technical Colleges will be based in regions with skill shortages, high rates of youth unemployment or have strategically significant industries.

The Commonwealth will partner and co-invest with industry and government and non-government organisations to establish these new schools.

This is a bold investment in young Australians and a practical plan to meet the demand for more homes, more tradies, and a stronger future.

2. 400,000 Apprentices and Trainees

We will return the number of apprentices and trainees in training to over 400,000 and make that a priority.

Under Labor, training numbers have collapsed. Labor promised to deliver “more apprentices and more trainees” yet there are 90,000 fewer apprentices and trainees in training since they were elected.

The number of apprentices starting a construction trade has dropped by 30 per cent under Labor.

This has made it harder to build the homes we need and made skills shortages worse. Labor’s failures on skills have pushed up prices and added to inflation. Australia’s small businesses and builders just cannot afford three more years of Labor.

The Coalition is committed to rebuilding our training pipeline because without lifting the number of apprentices and trainees we will not build the houses we need for Australians.

Our plan will back thousands of businesses to train the next generation and give a new generation of apprentices and trainees a hand up into well paid jobs for life.

The Coalition supports the National Skills Agreement and will work with states and territories to ensure every dollar delivers the best outcomes for Australia’s vocational education and training system.

3. Apprentice and Trainee Wage Support

We will provide small and medium businesses with $12,000 to support the wages of eligible new apprentices and trainees taking up training in areas of skills shortage for the first two years of their training. This is around 10 per cent of wage costs.

Our plan backs small and medium businesses with over $500 million to skill the next generation of Australian workers with targeted and proven solutions.

Hiring an apprentice or trainee is an investment, but many businesses, especially small and medium businesses struggle with the upfront costs of wages and training. We will help offset these costs, giving businesses the confidence to take on apprentices.

Unlike Labor, we strongly believe that employers are key to the strength of apprenticeships in Australia. Without businesses and builders willing to employ and train apprentices, the apprenticeship system is diminished.

This Apprentice and Trainee Wage Support will allow around 40,000 new apprentices and trainees each year to take up training in critical skills and occupations like carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, aged care and disability support workers, chefs, sheet metal workers and welders.

The Coalition will place particular emphasis on housing and construction trades through this incentive and will ensure all construction and housing trades are eligible through an updated Australian Apprenticeship Priority List.

4. Key Apprenticeship Program

Our Key Apprenticeship Program will deliver substantial cost of living relief to apprentices and trainees in critical sectors like housing construction. It will provide eligible apprentices and trainees direct incentive payments over the life of their training, helping them with the costs of purchasing their tools, safety gear and other essential items. This will give cost of living support to apprentices when they need it most.

Under Labor, Australians have suffered the largest fall in living standards in the developed world. Soaring mortgages and rents, increased power prices and higher expenses for essential goods and services, place significant financial strain on apprentices. Many are finding it harder to sustain themselves on apprentice wages, leading to higher dropout rates and fewer commencements in trades.

Our plan will see eligible apprentices and trainees receive between $5,000 and $10,000 in incentive payments, on top of their wages, over the life of their apprenticeship with a focus on supporting housing construction.

We will also increase the Living Away From Home Allowance from 1 July 2025 so apprentices can meet the costs associated with moving to take up an apprenticeship.

5. Skills in Schools Strategy

A new national Skills in Schools Strategy will review the best approaches and work with states and territories to deliver new initiatives to boost skills training in our schools.

In the decade from 2011 to 2021 the number of Australians with a university degree increased almost 70 per cent. For vocational qualifications the increase was just 25 per cent.

In France and Germany up to 50 per cent of students take up critical skills pathways in schools, yet in Australia, just one per cent of secondary school students take up a school-based apprenticeship.

Not enough students are taking up the skills we need to solve urgent national challenges. According to the official data, of around 1.6 million secondary students in Australia there were 242,945 VET in Schools students, or around 15 per cent. The balance of VET in Schools is leaving us short of the skilled trades we need to address the current housing crisis and other key priorities. 

The truth is we do not have a pipeline of skills in schools that can boost our construction workforce and develop the critical skills we need to support strategic efforts like housing construction, defence, national security and nuclear energy.

We need to improve the take-up of skills in our education system and increase the choices available to students and parents and help deliver the critical skilled workers we need.

The Commonwealth will work with State and Territory Governments to understand the barriers to skills in schools and deliver a comprehensive strategy to turn around the decline in skills in schools.

6. Sustainable skilled migration

Our migration system should prioritise our quality of life and economic prosperity.

Amid a housing and rental crisis, Labor has brought record numbers of people into Australia while neglecting the very skills we need to address the shortages we are facing.

Labor bowed to the demands of the militant CFMEU and have not prioritised visas for skilled workers such as bricklayers, painters, roof tilers and stonemasons who could help our local tradies build the extra houses we desperately need.

As a result, Labor has delivered the worst skills shortages in 50 years. In Labor’s first year in office, skills shortages increased by 12.5 per cent. The latest data indicates 33 per cent of all occupations remain in shortage.

The Coalition will review the Skilled Occupation List to ensure that it has the flexibility to assist in addressing the labour force shortages in our regions and in specific sectors, including construction and hospitality.

The Choice

Australians can’t risk another three years of Labor.

You can’t build a strong economy without a skilled workforce.

When the Coalition was in government, there were over 425,000 apprentices and trainees in training.

We lifted the number of trade apprentices in training to 220,000 – the most since records began in 1963.

We backed skills with record investments and the most significant reforms in over a decade guaranteed by a strong economy.

After just three years of Labor, Australia has lost all the gains the Coalition made in office.

Labor’s failed economic mismanagement has seen Australia lose over 90,000 apprentices and trainees from the skills pipeline.

30,000 businesses and builders have closed their doors making it harder than ever for these businesses to put on an apprentice or a trainee.

Labor’s Fee-Free TAFE program has not worked. Those closest to the skills crisis including small business and Australia’s building and construction sector say it is poorly targeted, with the wrong courses prioritised.

The Coalition will re-energise the economy and deliver a strong and future-ready workforce.

We will build on our proven track record of supporting apprentices, investing in vocational education, and ensuring that our training sector delivers real value, real skills, and real outcomes.

We will expand access to apprenticeships, empower small businesses and employers to train our next generation and ensure our training system matches the needs of our economy. 

Only a Dutton Coalition Government will deliver a plan to boost our skilled workforce and accelerate our housing supply to get Australia Back on Track.

The Coalition will invest $1.5 billion into our plan to back our skilled workforce.