Training Push For Young Plumbers

29 July 1994

The plumbing industry is pulling out all stops to introduce young men and women to the trade. JOHN WESTWOOD reports that this, and developments at RMIT and Holmesglen all point to a brighter future for young people.

It often happens that an apprentice performs so well on a casual assignment that he or she is engaged permanently, and this is the crux of the scheme - to find permanent work for plumbers.

THE way the home-building industry has been picking up of late has frightened the Canberra economists who fear an inflation blow-out, but for the tradespeople involved, the acceleration is the best news since sliced bread.

Not only does it boost the prospects of those already qualified and who have been struggling to earn a reasonable income, it gives hope to young people longing for the chance to start as apprentices.

In the plumbing industry, those responsible for training are pulling out all the stops to introduce more young men and women to the trade.

The vehicle for this is the Plumbing Industry Training Scheme. Today, it employs 85 apprentices and offers them also the chance of a job by acting as their employment agency.

The training scheme is obviously working well. This year, at the 87th annual awards for plumbing apprentices organised by the Master Plumbers and Mechanical Services Association of Victoria (MPMSAV), no less than five of the 13 awards available went to young plumbers who had progressed through the PIT scheme.

The scheme augers well for both the trade and its young hopefuls. It takes pressure off individual employers in difficult economic times, it provides a keenly structured format of training in all aspects of the work and it gives young plumbers incentive to keep going because the scheme includes the vital component of job-finding assistance.

As PITS points out, employers can select an apprentice on a temporary basis, choosing the level of expertise they need, ie, they might manage with a first-year student, or they might need one who is in fourth year.

The advantage is that the MPMSAV is the body that indentures the apprentices, not the employer and this pool of young labor is available for short or long-term contract.

It often happens that an apprentice performs so well on a casual assignment that he or she is engaged permanently, and this is the crux of the scheme - to find permanent work for plumbers.

For further information on plumbing apprentices and the PIT scheme, telephone the Master Plumbers hotline, 3299622.

THE security education expert at RMIT, Martin Taylor, predicts that within six years the number of security guards in Victoria will have trebled.

And he says the reasons are a combination of increased public awareness of the importance of asset and personal protection, advances in the technology available to white-collar offenders and an increase in the crime rate, especially ``gang activity".

RMIT runs several courses in security management that are registered as competency-based approved by the State Training Board.

The university believes it is Australia's leading provider of security industry training which, unfortunately, is a boom industry.

Indeed, it is believed that by the year 2000 private security guards will outnumber police by five to one.

Martin Taylor is a former sergeant with the Transit Police and is working at his PhD in educational administration. He already has a masters degree in education and a degree in police studies.

At RMIT he has helped model some of the course, including a certificate of security technology, and has designed new strategies throughout security education.

Ms Ailsa Inness, director of a large security company, AMIL Security Services, said: ``There is a new face of professionalism emerging in the industry and if security companies want to survive they will have to maintain a high standard."

All this must point to better job prospects. For further information on security courses at RMIT, telephone 6604570.

BRUCE MACKENZIE, director of Holmesglen College of TAFE, has won the 1994 Victorian AUSTAFE award, which will be made in Adelaide in September.

Mr Mackenzie has been associated with the TAFE system in Victoria for the past 25 years and has been director at Holmesglen College of TAFE since it opened in 1982.

His teaching career began with the technical division of the Education Department in 1968, although he taught humanities. For most of the past 25 years, he has worked consistently in the field of vocational education and training and was instrumental in TAFE's implementation in Victoria.

At Holmesglen he has developed the student base from 5000 in 1982 to 23,000 today and has arranged for a $60 million capital works program at the college within a seven-year period.

He also established a successful export division at Holmesglen and pioneered the concept of offering weekend study to people unable to attend at other times.

This year the college gained its Quality Assurance to International Standards Organisation level 9001.


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