After the share market crash of October 1987 there were serious repercussions on the whole of the building industry. The majority of employers in New Zealand, mainly trades people, were reluctant to take on apprentices due to the uncertainty of continuation of work available to them.
Government, through industry training organisations, made it compulsory for the term of an apprenticeship to be of a 4-year duration and this meant either taking on an apprentice for that term, or not at all.
A group of forward-thinking plumbers soon realised that if something was not implemented soon, there would be a shortage of trades people, particularly plumbers, in the near future.
Each member of the group agreed to share apprentices amongst themselves to ensure that the apprentices completed their time, albeit with different employers. The apprentices’ wages were to be paid by whichever employer had the apprentice at the time, and the rates also included all associated fees. The apprentice starting rate was $4.89.
The scheme allowed the “host” employer to pass the apprentice over to someone else when he did not have work available.
Word soon spread as to the effectiveness of this system of training and soon many employers around the region wanted to utilise the scheme.
It took several years of planning and many meetings with Government and Industry until in February 1991 the Apprenticeship to Industry Training Trust was established and registered as a not-for-profit charitable trust.
The number of apprentices grew to 10 by the end of the first year, and while some employers took on their apprentices on a full-term agreement, the majority were on a month-by-month basis, depending on their workloads.
By 1998 the numbers had grown to 75 apprentices shared between 200 “host” employers.
Government was suitably impressed, as were many other industries, and before long both the electrical and engineering industries had similar schemes up and running. We are proud of our achievements, as we were the pioneers of this most successful way of training and employing young adults.
The Apprenticeship Training Trust (ATT) still provides managed apprenticeships – matching employers with apprentices for plumbing, gasfitting, drainlaying and electrical industries.
With 30 years of experience, ATT's people and systems are designed to make apprenticeships easy. ATT employs the apprentices and can rehome them if host employer circumstances change, managing the payroll, training courses, HR issues, legislation, H&S, paperwork and much more. Read more at www.att.org.nz.
Thanks to our foundation Trustees Don Keenan and Barrie Wilkie for this history of ATT.
In 1991 the New Zealand population was 3.5 million, Jim Bolger was the Prime Minister, it was the final year of the Cold War and the end of apartheid in South African, a solar eclipse was seen by 20 million people, and the Apprenticeship Training Trust was set up (and a few more things were going on too).