Consultations have begun between the Ministry of Employment, the Tertiary Scholarships and Loan Services (TSLS), the National Training and Productivity Centre (NTPC) and apprenticeship employers for the possible increase of apprenticeship wage rate.
The consultation, which began on Friday at the TSLS headquarters in Garden City, Raiwai, Suva allowed employers to voice their concerns with Employment Minister Agni Deo Singh, who officiated at the event.
While delivering his opening speech, Mr Singh said there were discussions to increase the current apprenticeship minimum wage rate by $2 to attract more interest from locals.
“The Government is committed to assisting with the apprenticeship scheme. We, even now, have got scholarships for skills training and we’re proportioning them according to their needs,” he said.
“But the apprenticeship scheme is also a very key factor and the incentive that we have got in the current budget is topping up the minimum wage by $2 an hour, because as it is, apprenticeship scheme, I think the minimum wage rate is $2.90.
“We will top it up by $2 to make it reasonable so that we are able to attract apprentices. Otherwise, they are better off going for the minimum wage elsewhere.”
Mr Singh said another option was for the payment of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s tuition fees.
“The other option is that we can also pay 50 per cent of the tuition. So, we will have to contribute together to train our apprentices.
15″We also have to look at the period of training, whether it still needs to be five years that was there, or whether we can shorten it to suit our needs.”
Mr Singh said all these discussions were taking place at the NTPC board level when he was board chair, before he got sacked.
“These discussions have been ongoing for quite some time, but we have not been able to get any concrete outcomes. So, now we are committed, we want to have those outcomes and we want to work together with the employees to see how we can bring this scheme into fruition, how we can make sure that it is effective.”
Mr Singh said these consultations will be taken out to the communities to include other employers out there.
