THE departing CEO of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce has lamented that a generation of young people have been diverted away from entering the motor trades in what he says was a misguided emphasis by schools and parents on university degrees.  

Geoff Gwilym told GoAutoNews Premium that young people who became apprentices are now far and away better off financially than those who were convinced to go to university to get degrees to which there are no jobs attached and for which they are now deeply in debt.

In an exclusive interview Mr Gwilym said that “double degree baristas” operate in an uncertain jobs market whereas motor trades apprentices operate in a jobs world where there are 35,000 unfilled positions and this has been the case for decades.

He said that the estimate of 35,000 unfilled places in the motor trades is conservative and that “I have no view that it’s reduced whatsoever”.

Geoff Gwilym

Automotive has been in a skills shortage for at least 20 and possibly 30 years. It became more chronic before COVID and things haven’t really improved today. 

“I think what happened in Australia and in parts of Europe, is that there was a huge focus driven out of government reports on the skills requirements of the future, and what they indicated was that more and more people will need higher level qualifications and degree level qualifications. 

“What that did in schools and amongst parents was it got them so highly focused on higher education that trades started to take a back seat. And schools, in my view, were besotted with having high levels of numbers of students going to university with a very low focus on trades and vocational occupations. 

“So we keep churning out double degree baristas, people that have got two degrees that won’t get them a job, and yet they could have been a mechanic, a carpenter or a painter. 

“And I think we collectively have done a great disservice to Australian youth in promoting higher education to them, knowing that the jobs are not there in the volumes that would meet the student outcomes. – Geoff Gwilym

“We have committed a disservice on the basis that once you get over a certain age, employers are less likely to take you on as an apprentice. So we’ve burnt their time at university. We’ve loaded them up with a $60,000 or $70,000 HECS  bill, and then said: ‘But we never said you’d get a job.’

“I think it’s a terrible thing that we’ve done. The government does recognize that there’s a huge problem, but they’re not doing anything, in my view, substantial enough to shift that dial. 

“So what we’ve got, in my view, is people in the wrong jobs, doing the wrong tasks, and that’s what’s led to this chronic skill shortage in automotive and other vocational trades.

Mr Gwilym said the financial position of someone who left school at 15 and earned a wage during those years and a university student who gets a degree at 24 with an $80,000 HECS debt “is huge”. 

“The point is that the kids are just following our lead. So if the schools keep talking about higher ed, and parents suggest higher ed, they’re just following our lead. And so what I fear is that if we don’t get sufficient kids coming into apprenticeships, more informal training will occur. 

“In other words, go and work with Bob. He’ll show you how to do the job, and then we’ll just pay you. 

“But that really limits the employment mobility of Australians, and it means there’s no codification of your skills, which means when you go to get another job, they don’t know what you can do because they haven’t codified it inside a qualification.”