Training your employees and investing in their skills will let them know you value their contribution and that you are interested in their future. Your employees will want to work with you, stay longer and invest their time and effort into growing your business. It makes good business and financial sense to train and retain your best people. Through regular training you can keep your employees motivated and interested in your business, increasing their job satisfaction and overall wellbeing. With less stress, illness and injuries, well-trained and motivated employees are less likely to require sick leave for stress, illness and injuries.

By providing management, technical and administrative training to your staff they can take on extra responsibilities, reducing the burden on your management team. Training can help your employees take on new tasks and responsibilities – when you no longer have to rely on one person to do everything, tasks can be completed more efficiently. Because happy and motivated employees are less likely to resign, you can avoid high staff turnover simply by investing in your current employees and their skills. You will spend less time with recruitment agents, interviewing potential candidates and running background checks and have more time to look after your customers.

Keeping up to date with technology is essential for all businesses. Training to ensure that your employees are up to date with technology will not only enable them to do their job better but also ensures that your business is competitive and innovative.

The world is entering a period in which innovation, technology and automation will transform the working landscape. Activities within nearly every occupation have the potential to be automated or at the very least impacted by technology in some way. Through regular training your employees can keep on top of technology changes and have the capability to more readily identify, adapt and implement new ideas to keep your business operating and growing.

Neglecting to keep your employees trained in the latest developments can cost you more in the long run.

There are more than 650 apprenticeships and traineeships available in Western Australia, across almost every industry and ranging in AQF level from Certificate I to Advanced Diploma.

An apprentice or trainee can be a student or school-leaver, a person re-entering the workforce or an adult worker simply wishing to change careers.

An apprentice or trainee can be employed full-time, part-time or school based depending on your business needs.

Apprentices are trained in a skilled trade, such as a hairdresser, chef, plumber, cabinet maker and so on. An apprenticeship is usually three to four years in duration, and a trade certificate is issued upon successful completion. A trainee is generally employed in vocational areas such as office administration, hospitality or information technology. A traineeship is typically one to two years in duration and a VET qualification is issued upon successful completion.

Group training organisations

If you do not have enough work for an ongoing or full-time apprentice position, or your work does not cover the full range of skills an apprentice needs to learn to work in your industry, there are still ways you can participate in the apprenticeship system. Group training organisations (GTOs) can arrange for you to host an apprentice for a short stint, or share an apprentice with another business.

Click here for more information about GTOs, including a contact list of all WA GTOs.