AiG reports that: \u201cWhen employing school leavers or graduates, 28% of businesses indicated that a positive attitude\/general capability was their most preferred attribute when recruiting.\u201d Relevant qualifications and work experience come next at 19 and 18% respectively.<\/p>\n

The needs of the clean economy are in the mix too.<\/p>\n

Increasing spending on training and development<\/h3>\n

Businesses see the need to spend more on training and development, \u201cwith 82% of businesses intending to either maintain or increase the amount they spend on staff training and development in the next 12 months.\u201d Of these, \u201c51% plan to increase expenditure on training and development in the coming year, and 31% intend to maintain current levels.\u201d Short courses remain the most preferred form of training.<\/p>\n

Around 60% said they would train their existing employees whether or not they had government-funded support. Interestingly too, \u201c74% of businesses expressed interest in employing university or TAFE students as higher-level apprentices or cadets, indicating a strong appetite for new apprenticeship-style training contracts beyond the traditional trades.\u201d In fact, around 45% of those companies employing apprentices plan to increase numbers over the coming year.<\/p>\n

In terms of where they would source this training, the survey found that 27% would use TAFE or a private RTO, while 24% would use their in-company training capacity, a private training company (20%), a vendor or consultant (17%) or a university (12%). The report found that,<\/p>\n

\u201cfor short courses, in-house\/own company trainer was the most preferred option (37%) closely followed by private training company\/ events company (36%). Universities were the least preferred provider for these types of short courses. For micro-credentials, universities were again the least preferred provider (7%), with TAFEs and private Registered Training Organisations the most preferred (16%).\u201d<\/p>\n