Qualified Tiler Wages Hit The Roof

14 April 2007

ESTIMATES by the Bureau of Statistics show Victoria will have 2 million households this month containing - for the most part - about 5.12 million of the state's inhabitants, whose numbers jumped by 70,000 in the year to September.

The ABS also estimates that Victoria is adding about 30,000 households a year and that Melbourne, which is growing faster than any Australian city, has 3.68 million people.

That's a lot of homes and businesses that need roofs to keep out the elements.

Servicing the demand for apprentice tilers since 2002 is the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE through its roof tiling and slating training centre.

It is the only facility of its type in Melbourne's north.

The training involves a three-year apprenticeship where apprentices study for 40 days over three years at the TAFE. They attend classes one week in five, spending two hours with theory and six gaining experience at the centre.

It has two qualified slating and roof tiling teachers and a purpose-built facility for training that has 15 skill bays simulating roof styles for nearly all houses and other buildings.

Apprentices spend the rest of their time on the job learning the complex physical skills of the trade.

Charles Robins, NMIT's head of the department of building structures and services, oversees the course.

He says that trainees gain a national qualification allowing them to work anywhere in Australia.

Like other trades, roof tiling is suffering a long-term skills shortage that is leading to higher wages.

The centre's co-ordinator and roofing teacher, Shane Scotson, says a qualified roof tiler would easily take home $500-$600 a week.

Three years after starting an apprenticeship, a 20-year-old qualified roof tiler would earn nearly the average gross weekly wage of $835.60.

Mr Scotson says many recently qualified apprentices move straight into their own businesses where they make $1000-$1500 a week.

"But they have to work hard for it," he says.

"The set-up costs of your own business are, at the most, $17,000, and this is buying brand-new, top-of-the-range equipment and registering a company.

"There is a real shortage out there.

"We have eight employers currently looking for apprentices and they cannot fill the positions.

"It would be the same situation across the state and the country.

"Roof tiling is a permanent sort of trade. I can't see how it would be done without humans."

Mr Scotson was an experienced roof tiler before he started teaching and says he has never seen a qualified female tiler, "but I'd like to".

"It's a very male-oriented trade, very physical. You have to be very, very strong.

"But I know guys who are in their 60s and still doing it - and they are as fit as mallee bulls.

"It would suit all students who like doing physical outdoor work, don't mind working in the heat and aren't worried about heights." -- DAVID WILSON


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