Just over four years ago, on 3 September 2021, the Certificate III qualifications in Civil Construction, Civil Construction Plant Operations and Trenchless Technology were gazetted as three-year apprenticeships in WA, replacing the previous two-year traineeship. One of our main ambitions for the new Civil Construction Apprenticeship was to encourage more school leavers and young people to take up civil construction as a trade career. We're encouraged to see that the latest National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) data indicates that this is happening.
Last year, 80 Western Australians aged 15-19 enrolled in a civil construction apprenticeship, a fourfold increase on the civil traineeship enrolments for that age group in 2019. Annual enrolments of under 25s jumped from 75 to 190 in the same period. Overall, under-20s jumped from 9% to 20% of all Cert III civil enrolments and under-25s from 33% to 46%.
Although over-25s now make up a smaller percentage of civil apprenticeship enrolments, their numbers have grown too (notwithstanding a 'bubble' driven by generous post-COVID Federal incentives).
