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With home ownership rates at their lowest levels ever, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) is pushing for young people to rethink university – foregoing a HECS debt and kickstarting the construction Australia so desperately needs.
Acknowledging the current housing crisis, and citing the fact that “most people under 40 believe they will never own their own home”, HIA managing director Jocelyn Martin is of the belief that encouragement of apprenticeships and construction work must be the way forward.
“Right now, we need an additional 90,000 construction workers to address the skills shortages being experienced if we are to build the 240,000 new homes (1.2 million homes over next five years) that Australia desperately needs,” Martin said.
The managing director said it was disappointing that for the past three decades, “Australia’s school system has pushed uni, uni, uni, and encouraged only those not as apparently academically gifted into trades”.
But, she believes that “in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, young Australians need to realise that completing a trade in under four years, coming out debt free and with the potential to earn very well, is a first-choice career in Australia right now”.
As well as boosting Australia’s property prospects, she also sees it as the “best choice” for young people to earn a good wage, run their own business, and even to get on the property ladder in their 20s and early 30s.
Arguing that governments, schools, the media and industry “need to start talking up, not down, a trade qualification”, Martin considers construction “a leading career and lifestyle option with financial and business opportunities”.
Further to this, Martin has pointed out the absence of a HECS debt, the high demand for qualified trades, the ability to be your own boss, working outdoors away from a desk and the development of lifelong skills that can be applied when building or renovating one’s own home as just some of the benefits to a career in construction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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