Entry to the Skilled Trades in Australia: the role of family background and school achievement

Summary

This paper reports an analysis of factors associated with entry to skilled trades through the Australian apprenticeship system. It is based on data collected from a sample of nearly 2500 17‐year‐old males in 1978. The results suggest that:

(a) young males whose fathers were tradesmen were more likely to participate in apprenticeship training than other young males;

(b) apprentices had relatively higher achievement on numerical tests than on verbal tests;

(c) the sons of migrants from non‐English speaking countries were less involved in apprenticeship than other 17‐year‐old males; and

(d) young males who had attended private secondary schools were less likely to be involved in apprenticeship training than those who had attended public schools.

It was found that whether a person's father was a tradesman was a better predictor of participation in apprenticeship than the social prestige of the father's occupation.