I should be more grateful to a government for funding the new national training initiative, JobTrainer. For the last 40 years, governments of all hues have forgotten the unemployed and the underemployed.

The recent announcement of the $2 billion program, will merely line the pockets of dodgy private training providers (remember VET FEE help?) and underfunded and in many cases, utterly useless TAFE’s.

How do I know that? For the last 12 years I’ve worked in employment services. I’ve helped get thousands of people work. Before that I worked in Federal politics, TAFE and higher education. I was – and still am – at the cutting edge of the jobs market.

The first part is aimed at apprentices and trainees, to try hold them in work and study.

The second part is aimed at school leavers and job seekers and provides A$500 million for vocational education and training courses. That funding is conditional on matching funds from state and territory governments.

Whenever I hear politicians and business leaders cry for ‘more skills training’, I know a furphy is coming. The problem isn’t a lack of skills – or at last that’s not the principle problem. It’s a lack of JOBS.

Don’t worry about 340,700 training places. Create 340,700 jobs!

It isn’t a supply side problem. It’s a demand side disaster.

People enrolling in JobTrainer will be removed from the unemployment figures because they’re studying. The government will say, “It’s a MIRACLE! The unemployment level has fallen!!!”

But it will do nothing to help people get a job.

The reason why employers get hit with thousands of job applications – and then bleat that few of them have the right skills – is because the dole makes them apply for ten jobs a fortnight!

People are applying for any sort of job just to satisfy a mindless criteria. Sure, plenty of them haven’t got the right skills because each job advertised is looking for a specific set of skills.

Consider also if you’ve also got almost 2.5M people out of work or fearful of not getting their job back, employers will get a hell of a lot of applications from desperate people.

JobTrainer will focus on skills in areas the newly-formed National Skills Commission (NSC) ‘thinks’ – by looking in to a crystal ball – will be in high demand in the future. The NSC will consult with the states.

That’s a recipe for red tape and an implementation disaster.