CEO Editorial

Welcome to the July / August editorial, I must say it has been an extremely challenging time for MPA and other businesses as a number of organisations face the reality of staff changes due to a number of underlying factors. Staff are reassessing their work life balance, earnings compared to hours worked and capacity to deliver a higher return on investment expected by business owners. It doesn’t matter which industry people are in, it is across all sectors of the workforce and with additional pressures such as labour shortages, low unemployment rates and burgeoning costs of living, everyone is looking to ensure their lifestyle is well balanced.

Staff changes at MPA SA

I wish to let members know that the team at MPA SA has significantly changed over the past six months. I would like to formally welcome the following new staff members:

Gavin Watson – Operations Manager Jodie Bischoff – People, Careers and Wellness Manager Matt Ginn – Payroll and Accounts Officer Sam Baulderstone – Field Officer

Rachel Clark – Part time Admin Officer

Georgia Maurici - Administration Support Officer

On a sad note, I wish to let all members and industry stakeholders know that Crystal Balazs has decided to move on after an impressive 19 ½ years.

Crystal left school and came to MPA as a young administration officer and has achieved so much and grown into one of the best administrators I have ever encountered. We all wish her the best and hope that her next venture is equally as fulfilling as her career at MPA.

Changes to the Plumbing Qualifications

After extensive consultation during the past 3 to 4 years, the new plumbing training package has finally been approved to deliver. If you have a plumbing apprentice, you need to know this. The Certificate III in Plumbing is changing; this means that your apprentice will need to be transitioned across to the new qualification. Not only will your apprentice learn about new changes in technology, industry practices and licensing, both PEER and TAFE SA our two Registered Training Organisation’s (RTO’s) will make sure you are ready to go with this new transition.

What does this mean for your apprentice?

The CPC32413 will be transitioning to the CPC32420 – Certificate III in Plumbing. Your apprentice will fall into one of the below categories: 1. Continue to complete CPC32413 Certificate III in Plumbing Your apprentice may finish their CPC32413 Certificate III in Plumbing qualification and will be unaffected by this transition. They might even finish their trade school component early. 2. Transition into a new qualification – CPC32420 Certificate III

in Plumbing

There is a large portion of students that will need to be transitioned into CPC32420. This new qualification is different from CPC32413 and there is an increase in the number of units that will be delivered. All equivalent units will be granted with a credit transfer and some of the new units will require gap training. This means that your apprentice could potentially be scheduled into more training days at trade school. 3. New commencements New apprentices may experience a short-term delay in being scheduled into trade school due to this transition. New commencements will be scheduled into the new qualification. The two RTO’s are striving towards successful transitions and will work alongside employers, to minimise the effects that it will have on the apprentice and the employer. For the apprentices that will need to undertake gap training, RTO’s will attempt to be flexible in providing continuous gap training days to minimise lost time. This is to ensure apprentices will return to their normal scheduling as quick as possible.

I wish to thank both PEER (Demi Hoppo) and TAFE for their efforts in communicating with the MPA on this subject.