Oscar Cherry (right) with the first recipient of one of his support packages, apprentice Shannon Griffiths (left).
Victoria’s recently named best apprentice has made the selfless decision to provide a $3000 lifeline to other trainee tradies after watching several mates lose their jobs.
Now his industry is calling on the government to follow his lead and do more to help support young tradespeople to ensure it had enough workers to deliver the houses of the future.
Ballarat teenager Oscar Cherry became this year’s dual winner of Master Builders Victoria’s Apprentice of the Year and the Regional Apprentice of the Year in the junior category — which came with a pair of tool packs valued at about $2000 combined.
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Rather than keep them or sell them, he’s donating the packages as well as $800 in vouchers for workwear to apprentices in need of help to start in their career.
With many tradies taking on loans to pay for their tools upfront, his donations will mean that three apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds will be given an almost $1000 leg up at a time when they are facing uncertain employment.
“I have some mates from trade school and their bosses have let them go because they can’t afford it. A lot of smaller businesses are struggling,” Mr Cherry said.
“There’s less work coming along for company owners and a lot of the companies aren’t putting on new tradies. They have to let go of the weakest link, and that’s the youngest tradies.
“So a lot are starting and not being able to finish it.”
Master Builders Victorian apprentice of the year Oscar Cherry is behind an almost $3000 support scheme to help tradies get a start as an apprentice — but says more needs to be done.
After finishing his apprenticeship as a carpenter a year ahead of schedule with his father’s business, the chippie is hoping his offer will help others have the same great experience he did.
He noted that for a lot of apprentices, they were living by themselves and trying to get by on lower wages and that with costs like tools and a question mark over whether they would be able to keep their job, it was “just not sustainable”.
“Having the opportunity to give a tradie a set of tools and them not having that overhead, I feel like that it will make me feel good and make their apprenticeship experience a whole lot better,” Mr Cherry said.
He added that the industry needed more support not just to get apprentices started, but to ensure they were able to continue on with their career.
While groups like Master Builders could be integral for that, he said it was an area government could look at, too.
“We need to support our tradies when they are coming up through the ranks, and ensuring that they have the resources to stay in the industry,” he said.
“Support for young tradespeople is a must. It’s a key focus that we need to keep improving.”
Oscar Cherry on a building site. Picture: Ian Wilson.
Master Builders Victoria has warned apprentices, most who are earning between $640 and $1100 a week, were increasingly having to abandon their trade at a time when the cost of fuel, food, tools and rents are all on the rise.
They are calling for HELP-style loans for apprentices and temporary $10,000-$15,000 payments to businesses that opt to keep apprentices on the books throughout the current economic disruptions as a way to help bolster the workforce that would be needed in the years to come.
Master Builders Victoria chief of public affairs Dr Corrie Williams said Mr Cherry’s example was “inspiring” and would help shape a “more connected and resilient sector for the future”.
“It is now almost impossible for apprentices to survive on apprentice wage rates, which typically sit between $640 and $1100 a week – much less than the $1,300 average full‑time income for entry-level workers,” Dr Williams said.
“This financial strain is forcing too many young people to abandon their trade career ambitions.”
But she said it shouldn’t fall to apprentices to help each other out and called for more support to help those entering construction careers.
Challenging times are causing builders to cut their own costs, and for some that means letting apprentices go through no fault of the tradie in training.
Among the suggestions were expansions to school-based apprenticeships, enhanced vocational programs and a HELP-style loan for mature-age apprentices to help them transition from other careers.
Dr Williams also called for a temporary $10,000-$15,000 retention payment to employers who kept apprentices on during the current economic disruptions, with a further $2000-$5000 for regional apprentices, as well as payroll tax exemptions for apprentice wages for businesses with fewer than 20 workers.
While he hadn’t been expecting the accolades, Mr Cherry said he’d always aimed to put his best foot forward on the job — and that he’d known even with his dad teaching him the trade he’d always been viewed as an employee during work hours.
“The only real difference was that I couldn’t pull a sickie, because he could come into my room and check,” he said.
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