‘I didn’t know I could be a tradie, being a girl’: The night that changed everything for Maddison

3 months ago 8

Maddison Daly was good at maths and physics at school, but there was one thing she wishes she had known.

“I always wanted to do a trade and, it sounds silly, but I didn’t know that I could, being a girl,” she said.

Maddison Daly is studying Cert III in Electrotechnology Electrician and became an apprentice after discovering her profession on Instagram.

In the years after leaving school, she worked at McDonald’s, where “they pay you peanuts and you definitely have to work for it”. She enrolled in a business degree at university before dropping out and taking a job as a manager at Coles. Then, at 25, she had an epiphany.

“One night I was actually scrolling Instagram and I saw a lady carpenter and I went down that rabbit hole and found all these girls online who were in a trade and I was like, ‘Wow, I can actually do it’.”

She is now in her third year of a Certificate III to become a qualified electrotech electrician.

The NSW government is planning an overhaul of the state’s apprenticeship system in a bid to address the chronic skills shortage and attract more people into trades. There is also an alarmingly high drop-out rate, with figures showing that only half of those who start an apprenticeship finish it.

NSW Skills Minister Steve Whan, pictured here with his son-in-law Alex Schearer, who is a cabinetmaking apprentice.

A review of existing legislation will seek to increase completion rates, and better align training with workforce needs, particularly in high-demand sectors such as construction, tech, care and clean energy. Apprentices, trainees, employers and training providers are being asked to share their experiences of the system in a survey from Thursday.

NSW Skills Minister Steve Whan said the review is about making apprenticeships and traineeships work better for students, employers, and training providers.

“We’re rebuilding the skills system so that it delivers for NSW. Not just for now, but for the long term,” he said.

“We want a system that reflects today’s economy and helps more people get the skills they need for good jobs, especially in the regions and in industries crying out for workers.”

The government says it has allocated $3.4 billion in coming years for TAFE and skills – an investment the government says comes after “12 years of neglect” by the former Coalition government.

Gareth Jones is the director of Marley Flow Control, an engineering company based in Emu Plains in Sydney’s west, which takes one apprentice a year. He said, in his experience, there was inadequate support from TAFE when it came to helping students survive in the workforce.

“We had an example of an apprentice with reading difficulties. You try to employ a person with a good attitude — but they are bad at reading – the support we got through TAFE was woeful,” he said.

The latest NAPLAN results show about one-third of year 9 students, who are on the cusp of the school-leaving age, are failing to meet minimum standards in reading and writing.

Unlike Australia, other OECD countries such as Germany, Singapore, China and many others design their entry-level apprenticeship programs to ensure that general education continues for students.

“It is disappointing when we put time in and people have the right attitude. The poor standard of education you have coming out of schools, it impacts us down the line,” Jones said.

Gary Workman, executive director of the Apprenticeship Employment Network, which represents registered group training organisations, said different reviews conducted over the past decade had identified the same problems.

“A lot of employers are saying, ‘we’re getting the pipeline of people who are not academically strong [and] who lack basic communication skills and an understanding of what the job looks like’.”

He said schools were geared toward the 65 per cent of students who would go onto university, with little information about potential apprenticeship career paths or school-based apprenticeships where students could get a taste for a trade.

“Once someone has an interest in something, they see a reason for all the academic skills,” he said.

Figures show in the first half of 2024, 27,000 people in NSW started a traineeship or apprenticeship but 15,000 people dropped out.

Australian Industry Group Centre for Education and Training executive director, Dr Caroline Smith, said legislation should evolve with the labour market and reflect burgeoning trends such as degree apprenticeships, which have been rolled out successfully, including in South Australia in industries such as software engineering.

“Degree apprenticeships are a new opportunity to earn while you learn, with a real connection to the workplace ... we think it is the right time to look at the legislation and to make sure it is not a blocker to expanding the apprenticeships model into new areas,” she said.

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