ASGA continues to encourage industry training centres across Australia. TAFE training centres are connecting with each other so that the units in the new CERT III Signs & Graphics qualification can be written and delivered. Paul Richards (Sydney) and Steve Fogarty (Adelaide) are the drivers in the process and our Head Office keeps encouraging them in their endeavours.
ASGA has identified the need for more apprentices for the sign and graphics industry as the number being qualified falls far short of the number of workers leaving the industry. Each year more and more companies across Australia are finding it difficult to recruit both qualified Sign and Graphics tradespersons as well as apprentices wanting to take up and complete apprenticeships. Parents know about trades such as plumbing, carpentry and electrical for they meet their exponents in the home or workplaces. Our industry remains hidden yet in fact is so exposed for all to witness the end product. In Sydney ASGA was able to mount a Trade Readiness Course in Western Sydney late last year and students who were involved are now keen to do a Pre-Apprenticeship Course. Several more of these Trade Readiness Courses are planned in the first half of this year. Andrew Bryson, CEO of the Apprenticeship Engagement Forum NSW, has been able to source NSW Government funding for these courses. Small steps and ones we’d love to replicate across Australia. The help of our member companies when required is always much appreciated.
We have made the delivery of the Sign & Graphics qualification the key topic of our information/discussion meetings in South Australia and Queensland in March. Those who deliver the course will be present along with Department of Education representatives and we hope employers who have taken on apprentices will join us.
Click here for details of the SA session
Click here for details of the QLD session
ASGA
www.signs.org.au
