Trades shortage prompts NT aviation company to recruit women to fill the gap

Olivia Biggs has always been drawn to aircraft. Now she’s working on keeping them in the sky. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)

As industries across Australia try to solve staff and trainee shortages, aviation company Chartair has started targeting half the nation’s population who are often under-recruited in trades — women.

Among the company’s apprentices in the Alice Springs hangar is Olivia Biggs, a maintenance engineer who harboured passions for planes long before she started working on them.

Since “falling” into maintenance work she has not looked back.

“The boys here are really good,” Ms Biggs said.

“I’m treated the same as everyone — there’s no real problems I found.”

Chartair chief executive Luke Fisher said the industry, domestically and overseas, was contending with shortages in various key roles.

The company made it a priority to increase its apprentice numbers and now half of them are women.

“We’ve got a good balance between male and female,” Mr Fisher said.

“We’d be over the industry averages in that respect.”

Data from the Northern Territory revealed there are 3,645 people enrolled apprenticeships — about 850 trainees short of the NT’s target of 4,500.

According to Group Training Northern Territory, trainee carers, hairdressers, electricians and plumbers are in particularly short supply.

That is despite the electrical trade being among the better-performing sectors for attracting new apprentices in the NT.

A national analysis done by the federal government for the 2023 Skills Priority List found that of the 20 largest occupations with shortages, eight had workforces comprised of more than 80 per cent men.

Of the 20 sectors with the biggest shortages, three had a female workforce larger than 80 per cent.

Knock-on effects

Matt Cunningham runs a housing construction company in Central Australia and says even though he has taken on five carpentry apprentices there are still not enough workers to meet demand.

“We’re finding we haven’t got the resources to deliver domestic projects and new houses,” he said.

He said his company, like many in regional areas, was facing an uphill battle to retain young people.

“Incentives at the moment, across the board, for employment, apprenticeships, first home owners grants … are pulling people from regional areas to urban areas to deal with their  economic boom,” Mr Cunningham said.

Angus Reid is in his third year of his carpentry apprenticeship and has a view to move to Victoria from Alice Springs.

“I’ll do a couple more years here then probably go down south and see what I can do down there,” he said.

Originally from Victoria, Mr Reid said there were many reasons young people were moving away to big cities.

“I just want to see something different and there’s only so much you can do here, I suppose, and there’s a lot more elsewhere,” he said.

Mr Cunningham and Mr Fisher said strong incentives to keep people in the regions was essential.

Mr Fisher said another key factor for retention was having a culture that trainees wanted to be a part of once they had completed their apprenticeship.

Ms Biggs’s training with aircraft is giving wings to a career almost anywhere in the world, but upon completing her apprenticeship, she wants to remain grounded in Alice Springs.

She is less keen on the idea of living in a big city.

“I really like the crew here,” Ms Biggs said.

“We have a really good team and it’s just something about the desert – it keeps you.”