24/06/2026
Data has shown that the number of West Australians enrolled in apprenticeships and traineeships is the lowest in five years after a post-COVID spike in numbers.
The report by The National Centre for Vocational Education Research revealed 35,760 people were at some stage of a vocational training contract in December 2025, compared with 40,385 in 2021.
WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WACCI) associate director of industry skills Lena Constantine told Nadia Mitsopoulos on 102.5 ABC Radio Perth the downward trend was a concern.
"To meet demand from defence, clean energy, or the housing, the infrastructure builds that we need to get through in the next decade… my gut feel is that we probably need to look around about 4 per cent of our workforce in apprenticeship or traineeship," she said.
"So that's probably sitting at about 60,000."
Part of the decrease, she said, was due to the federal government's reduction in pandemic-era incentives to employers to offer apprenticeships.
"Our members tell us that if they could have access to $10,000 per year for the first two years of an apprenticeship, we would see a much healthier uptake in this space."
Employers offering apprenticeships in priority trades, which include electrical, carpentry and plumbing, can access $5,000 a year in government funding, while other trades receive $2,500.
The state government offers $8,500 over four years for an apprenticeship and half that for a traineeship.
"But it tends to be the federal government incentives that change behaviour," Ms Constantine said.
