Paper short abstract:

Attempts by the Australian federal government to counter-act a perceived ‘skills shortage’ through formal trade education perversely undermine the condition of the rural trades. By changing the entry conditions, social relations, and commodification of rural skills, some forms of education deter individuals from entering rural trades.

Paper long abstract:

Australia is suffering through a 'skills shortage' according to media and government, a labor issue affecting immigration policy, educational expenditures, and even the recent national election. At the same time, apprenticeship trajectories in the 'trades' are shifting, with some becoming formalized and requiring specialized education for entry. The perception that there is a 'shortage' of skilled labor clashes with the situation in rural areas, where unemployment is high and farmers are profoundly affected by a severe drought.

This presentation explores the political and economic impact of changes to the education of tradesmen, especially in rural trades such as machine repair, masonry, fencing, rural construction, and other farm-related specialist skills. Drawing on interviews and apprenticeship-based fieldwork with rural tradesmen in an area largely unaffected by drought (the Illawarra region of New South Wales), this paper explores how policies intended to increase the supply of skilled labor perversely undermine the labor supply.

In part because they affect the entry conditions and social relations of novices and the way in which skill is commoditized, some of these educational programs actually make trade apprenticeship less open and attractive to potential entrants. A close examination reveals large-scale traffic in 'unofficial' forms of trade knowledge that is, to some degree, threatened by official attempts to certify and increase expertise in rural trades. This paper also considers the implication of these social changes in labor in relation to rural-to-urban migration, drought, and the transformation of the agricultural economy.