Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor said a strategic review of the Australian apprenticeships incentive scheme will determine how the program could be better used amid growing skill shortages.

Under the scheme, employers in priority sectors receive financial subsidies to take on apprentices for each year of training.

Direct payments are also made to apprentices to help with living expenses as a way of getting them to stay in the job.

“Getting the best outcomes for apprentices and trainees is vital to ensuring we have the skills our economy needs,” O’Connor said.

“We know that almost half of all apprentices don’t complete their training. Addressing the completion rate is not just vitally important for individuals and employers, but also for the Australian economy.”

Electrical Trades Union of Australia National Secretary Michael Wright said the review was an “enormous opportunity” to build the workforce for the decades to come.

“We need a robust, well resourced, industry-led training effort and it needs to start immediately,” he said.

“Apprentices need to be supported at every step of their time, we can’t afford for anyone to be slipping through the cracks.”

The review will be headed up by former Fair Work Commission president and Federal Court judge Iain Ross, along with University of Canberra chancellor and former education department secretary Lisa Paul.

Areas of the scheme to be put under the microscope include how the incentive system encourages people to take up a profession, as well as cost of living pressures on apprentices and trainees.

There will also be a focus on how more under-represented cohorts could take up apprenticeships such as women, Indigenous people, those with a disability or people living in regional areas.

Submissions will be open until May 15, with consultations to be carried out online and in person in coming weeks.

– AAP