In May Programmed bought Apprenticeships Australia, and its Energy Apprenticeships Group with it, which covers most of Australia's oil and gas professionals at that level across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

 

Up until that point the CCIWA, which had owned Energy Apprenticeships Group, had a monopoly on the apprenticeships market in oil and gas, at least in WA.

 

The move by Programmed has now destroyed that monopoly and has opened up the opportunity for the likes of The Apprenticeships Group and its three other peers

Programmed still has a link with Apprenticeships Support Australia, which was formed in 2014 to deliver the Australian government's Australian Apprenticeship Support Network under a contract from the Department of Education and Training.

 

However, Energy News understands that could change, though Apprenticeships Support Australia has the influential backing of the Australian Business Apprenticeship Centre and the respective state CCI groups of South Australia, WA and Victoria.

 

The Energy Apprenticeships Group covered oil and gas-related trades including instrumentation electrical apprenticeships, mechanical fitters, process plant operations, service and lab technicians, business admin traineeships and warehousing logistics.

 

Programmed has contracts with most of Australia's oil and gas companies through Apprenticeships Australia, as some WA-based based companies like ConocoPhillips offered it to do work in the NT which led to opportunities in Queensland.

 

It's understood Apprenticeships Australia was the only specialist oil and gas training organisation.

 

As one of the three contracted Australian Apprenticeship Support Network providers in WA, The Apprenticeship Community offers traineeship and apprenticeship opportunities for businesses, to enable them to upskill cross-skill and assist their workforce through "assisted pathways".

 

These options range from process plant operators, qualified trade electricians who want instrumentation qualifications, to leadership and management diplomas for upper management staff.

 

 

"The primary incentive of traineeships is to have people who are properly skilled, universally trained, assessed as competent in the industry framework, and for positions requiring less than a university degree level," Eagle told Energy News.

 

"The training is generally done in the workplace with a training provider who would ensure it's done to the national level.

 

"It's open to all, generally there are no prerequisites depending on the qualification though there are some exemptions, ie for instrumentation, where they have to be a qualified electrician as it is for post-trade.

 

"That said, oil and gas use the trade as instrumentation is critical for plant control."

 

This initiative is also heavily funded by the federal government, so not only do companies get payroll tax exemption but may also attract funding of $8000 per person.

 

The Commonwealth's focus on instrumentation is due to the reported skill shortage across sectors, though it's unknown how much this impacts the energy sector.

 

The Apprenticeship Group state manager Jo Eagle told Energy News that the benefit of doing that through the assisted pathways model is that the business gets payroll tax exemption while they're on that program which they can use to offset the cost of the training fees

 

This means that if companies are looking to use traineeships and apprenticeships to upskill staff it means those individuals' salary is exempt from payroll tax for the duration which will directly fund their upskilling

 

 There are also opportunities within the traineeships system to access management and safety training through accredited pathways. For example, Energy News has learned that at least one major gold mining company is looking at upskilling senior managers through formal leadership training.

 

"That would be common in oil and gas as well, where technical people get promoted through to management level without having any management qualifications or training, in things like profit and loss, emotional intelligence and communication and such soft skills," Eagle said.

 

"It's an untapped opportunity for us in oil and gas because many probably don't even know about the instrumentation one as just one example.

 

"They might be recruiting these people and need to train them, but may not realise that if they used this vehicle to provide that training that they're going to give them anyway, they can offset costs, and are more interested now than they were perhaps five years ago."