Bernard Trendle

Surviving apprenticeship training: A duration analysis of apprenticeship contracts in Australia

Fifty percent of youth entrants to apprenticeships in Australia fail to complete their course producing costs to, employers, the trainees themselves and society in general. This study uses data from the Direct Entry Level Training Administration for a duration analysis of this high attrition rate. We find those most likely to survive apprenticeship training will be males who have completed high school prior to training, work with a single employer, undertake train within the Government system and avoid occupations such as food trades and hairdressing.

The Determinants of Population and Employment Growth in Small Queensland Regions

This paper investigates the determination of population and employment changes for the 125 Local Government Areas of Queensland over the 1996–06 period. The intention is to determine the flow of causality from employment to population growth and/or vice versa. Unlike previous similar studies, the role of geographic location is formally investigated using techniques from the field of spatial data analysis. Overall, results of previous research are confirmed, in that there is some evidence of bi-directional causality. However, spatial effects are found to be important in the process of regional growth, with regional economic performance in part, determined by the outcomes experienced in neighbouring regions.

Cancellation of indigenous Australians from the apprenticeship training contract

The vocational education and training (VET) sector is a major pathway to post‐school education for indigenous students, yet questions are being raised about the capacity of the VET system to provide successful outcomes for the indigenous apprentices and trainees it attracts. Within a system plagued by high cancellation rates in general, indigenous apprentices appear to do particularly badly. This paper combines data from an administrative database on apprenticeship with income data from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing to provide an analysis of attrition rates for apprenticeship training contracts in Queensland, asking: Are cancellation rates for indigenous students significantly higher than those for non‐indigenous students, and, if so, what factors are responsible for this?

Implementing a Multiregional Input-Output Model – The Case of Queensland

Input-output analysis is a flexible technique capable of being used for a wide variety of applications, particularly at a regional level. Incorporating input-output tables into a multiregional framework provides an opportunity for increasing the flexibility of the technique. Historically, very few multiregional models have been generated. This has been due to the paucity of data available at a regional level, especially data covering interregional trade flows. Where the technique has been applied it has often relied on input-output tables and trade data estimated through the application of location quotient procedures. This paper briefly outlines the approach used in the implementation of the Queensland multiregional input-output model. The limitations of a nonsurvey implementation of the model such as that of Guild (1998) are addressed in this approach. The methodology adopted includes the incorporation of superior data into the model, and table modification using a process of data reconciliation. Reconciling the estimated tables and trade flows with the official state table ensures consistency between these two sets of accounts. In addition, this process has been shown to improve the information content of the tables.

Attrition and retention of apprentices: an exploration of event history data using a multi-state modelling framework

ABSTRACT There is widespread public concern at the high drop-out rates among apprentices in Australia. This paper argues that this concern may be misplaced as it fails to allow for eventual completion over time. We argue that a methodology that concentrates on a single training episode only is less appropriate to evaluating training outcomes in a regime where apprentices routinely record multiple episodes of training. This paper uses a multi-state approach to model the behaviour of a large sample of apprentices over a 60 month period which proves well suited to the episodic nature of cases observed in the data.