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The Australian Government gives incentive payments aimed at encouraging employers to offer people training opportunities that are employment based thus enabling such people to gain knowledge and build on their skills while being paid. However, such incentives and benefits are limited to people involved in traditional trades which are considered to be experiencing a skills shortage and this is established using the skills shortage list.

The National Skills Needs List therefore helps to identify trades that have a skills shortage and this is done through research. This skills shortage list is thus used to establish whether you are eligible for various Australian Government initiatives such as:

• Tools for Your Trade Payment
• Support for Adult Australian Apprentices
• Rural and Regional Skills Shortage Incentive

If the government considers a given trade as persistently experiencing skills shortage, then such a trade is included in the skilled occupation list. However, for this to happen, the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations is tasked with the duty of carrying out research so that this shortage can be established.

Some of the trades that you are likely to find on the skilled occupation list include:

• Carpenter and joiner
• Landscape gardener
• Stonemason
• Boat builder and repair
• Aircraft maintenance engineer
• Metal machinist
• Electronic equipment tradesperson
• Butcher
• Baker
• Fitter
• Pastry cook
• Optical mechanic

As you apply for apprenticeship opportunities, it may help to find out whether the trade you are interested in is on the skills shortage list. With this knowledge, you will be able to establish whether you are eligible for government grants of any type as well as what you need to do in order to benefit from such grants.

You will also notice that the skills shortage list keeps changing. This basically means that you should look out for the most updated skilled occupation list if it is to be helpful to you. You do not want to find out that you are not eligible for a given grant because a trade you have chosen is no longer in the skills shortage list.