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Speaker 1: All right. It turns out a trade apprenticeship isn't the

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Speaker 1: hal Mary. Some think it is. Over half of our

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Speaker 1: apprentice trainees in New Zealand drop out before they complete

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Speaker 1: their course. Last night, Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmons told

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge how much we've wasted on it. It's tens

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Speaker 1: of millions, probably getting close to hundreds of millions, so

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Speaker 1: it's quite a lot of money. But it's a waste

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Speaker 1: all round. Really, it's a waste for the government, but

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Speaker 1: it's also our waste for the employer. So Johnavan now

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Speaker 1: is the CEO of tipper Kinger Gus Gilmore, good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Gus, Good morning Andrew.

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Speaker 1: Is the money spent on your thing a waste?

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Speaker 2: Look? I think the initiative from the minister she announced

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Speaker 2: yesterday is a really good thing. We need to continue

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Speaker 2: to research thoroughly why we're losing apprentices and a key

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Speaker 2: to there is first year attention rates. That's the canary

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Speaker 2: in the mind for us. And we've seen a steady

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Speaker 2: decline in those first year attention rates. Why due to

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Speaker 2: a number of factors.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, why.

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Speaker 2: The main categories from the research we did in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three, the first one is the system level type

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Speaker 2: factors where the apprentice and the employee don't have control

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Speaker 2: over things like training, wage rates, low pay, economic climate

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Speaker 2: where simply apprentices are unemployment and lose their job due

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Speaker 2: to the downturn in our economy. Second major area is

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Speaker 2: government compliance and immigration policy settings, so in some sectors

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Speaker 2: it's not a requirement to have apprenticeship qualification and we

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Speaker 2: see in those areas of our economy the dropout rates

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Speaker 2: are higher. And then the third major category is government

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Speaker 2: incentives and apprenticeship boost scheme is a really good one.

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Speaker 2: During twenty during the COVID period, there was an incentive

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Speaker 2: which paid employers to attract and retain apprentices. Unfortunately, that

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Speaker 2: turned into a bit of a sugar rush and we

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Speaker 2: saw huge growth and apprenticeship numbers, but the completion rates foul.

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Speaker 1: So the ball is in your court. You're here to

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Speaker 1: train our next generation of workers. Can we fix it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? And there is an emerging positive picture. As I said,

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Speaker 2: the canary in the mind is our first year attention rates.

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Speaker 2: Last year in twenty twenty four, we saw those first

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Speaker 2: year rates move from sixty percent to seventy percent. So

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Speaker 2: we're going to see more apprentices completing over the next

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Speaker 2: three four years of their apprenticeship program, but important initiatives

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Speaker 2: likes providing support in the workplace. Two apprentices is important.

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Speaker 2: Apprentice is feeling valued, having the right culture in the workplace,

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Speaker 2: providing mentors from industry, those experienced people wrapping their support

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Speaker 2: around our young people learning on the job.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, Gus, I thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time today and I wish you were the very best

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Speaker 1: of luck.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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