Federal election 2025: Peter Dutton wants tradies to start training in school to help housing crisis

More young Australians will be encouraged to pick up the tools with a new network of Australian Technical Colleges the Coalition is promising to build across the country.

The 12 new colleges would let people finish their final years of high school while taking on an apprenticeship or traineeship as part of a $260 contribution, support by other funding from private schools or state governments.

It’s a revival of John Howard-era policy aimed at building at least one specialist skills school in each State, although not all the locations will be revealed before the election with WA-based hub not expected to be announced before May 3.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the plan would help tackle the shortage of tradies hindering the ability to build more homes.

“Not enough students are taking up the skills we need to solve the urgent national challenges we face,” he said.

“I want to fix the skills crisis. Under Labor, we have lost 90,000 apprentices and trainees and we are determined to reverse that decline.”

Shadow skills and training minister Sussan Ley said the return of training colleges would offer a change in direction for Australian education.

“While countries like France and Germany have up 50 per cent of school students taking up critical skills pathways in schools, just one per cent of Australian secondary school students take up a school-based apprenticeship,” she said.

“We have always rejected the idea that if you haven’t made it to university then you haven’t made it in life – and that principle underpins this significant announcement.”

Former Prime Minister Mr Howard set up 21 technical colleges in his final term of government, and promised at the 2007 election to add another 100, but Kevin Rudd withdrew funding for the scheme in 2009.

The college in Perth was one of the last to close in 2013, and was derided by then-WA training minister Mark McGowan for failing to make a dent in the skills shortage.

The shortage of tradies has been a key question as both sides of politics target housing policy.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday boosting the supply of homes was the key to solving the crisis.

“What we are doing is digging Australia out of the hole that the Liberals have dug over a decade of inaction,” he said.

The Coalition’s plans include a $5 billion fund for infrastructure to open up new housing developments and promises young people can use their superannuation for a deposit and to make interest payments tax deductible.

Labor have $10 billion on the table to build houses reserved for first-home buyers, on top of the Housing Australia Future Fund and social housing programs and a $1 billion infrastructure fund.

It has also promised to expand the First Home Guarantee scheme meaning first-time buyers can get a loan with only a 5 per cent deposit.

New Labor analysis says the plan would cut the average time to save a deposit from 5.6 years to 1.4 years – meaning new home owners can direct an average of $140,141 to their mortgage instead of rent.