Trade Skills Training Visa (TSTV)
Letter to the Editor - Gladstone Observer
14 March 2006
Dear Sir/Madam
Recent criticism of the Trade Skills Training Visa (TSTV) is nothing more than scaremongering.
No Australian will miss out on an apprenticeship because of the TSTV program. An employer must satisfy a certifying body - which is either a state or territory government agency, or an organisation appointed after consultation with the relevant state or territory government - that the vacancy cannot be filled by an Australian.
It is these agencies that are best placed to know whether an apprentice can be found locally.
The TSTV was developed and designed in close consultation with state and territory governments.
The apprentices - who must receive award pay rates and conditions - will not take TAFE places away from Australian apprentices.
In fact, more TAFE places are likely to open up because overseas apprentices would help provide the numbers and funding that make some apprentice programs viable in rural and regional Australia.
The TSTV is not a substitute for the training of young Australians in trade occupations. There are now almost 400 000 new apprentices in training compared to around 143 000 in 1995.
More than 160 000 additional vocational education training places are expected to be created by 2008, and 25 more Australian technical colleges established, under the new Commonwealth-State agreement for skilling Australia's workforce.
Even with this major investment in training, it will not be enough to cover for the very large number of baby-boomer tradespersons who will retire over the next five to 10 years.
Australia's growing economy will need to be supplemented by people from overseas. Providing for some of these people to be trained in regional locations to Australia's standards on a full-fee paying basis is an excellent way to contribute to the number of tradespersons regional Australia will need.
Sandi Logan
National Communications Manager
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs