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Industry roles
It pays to train
The gures are in, and they show that money spent on training construction apprentices will bring bene ts to the company bottom line.
BY GLORIA MCGUIRE, COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER, BCITO
IN A NEW ZEALAND FIRST, BCITO research has proved that training apprentices generates pro t. A recently conducted in-depth research project shows that, for every $1.00 spent on training a carpenter, a business will bene t by $4.70 in increased pro t up to a 10-year period.
Break-even in 3–4 years
There’s a misconception held by some that training an apprentice costs a business money with little or no return. This research proves that, in the long run, this is wrong. Investing in industry training is not just a cost to be minimised – it’s an investment that can grow your business.
Obviously, the return on investment doesn’t kick in immediately. The break-even point is 3–4 years – about the same time as completion
of an apprenticeship. At this point, the cost of training is o set by the extra pro t generated by the training (see Figure 1).
This extra pro t keeps increasing the longer the trained person remains with the rm. Sta retention is a factor in this equation – the longer an employer keeps trained sta , the more pro table they become.
Skills shortage remains
‘During the past 2 years, BCITO has experienced unprecedented growth in new apprenticeships, but the construction industry still remains woefully short of skilled tradespeople,’ says Greg Durkin, Group Manager, Stakeholder Engagement, BCITO.
‘We need more businesses to come on board and train our young people. With this research completed, we can clearly prove that training an apprentice is a positive investment for employers.’
As part of the project, carpentry business owners were asked about their rms’ structure – the number of people employed and what roles they were in. From this information, a model of an average rm in the industry was developed (see Table 1).
While the payback period for both trained and untrained workers appear to be similar, the positive return from training is sustained well into the future, increasing the cumulative bene t each year.
Further upsides
Other ndings of the project show that, when compared with a business that doesn’t invest in industry training, a carpentry rm that trains all sta will:
● grow6%faster
● charge$0.44moreperhourperperson
● estimatework3%moreaccurately
● take 2% fewer hours to complete the same task or project.
60 50 40 30 20 10
0 -10
Without training With training
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
years Figure 1: Cumulative return per year of employment.
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FEATURE SECTION
Return $ (000)