Every few years the national qualification for painters and decorators is reviewed and has a major update. The last update was made in 2020, but already it looks very out of touch with the industry it is designed for.

Certificate III Painting and Decorating is the nationally recognised qualification for painters and required for licensing in SA, NSW, and QLD, and can be used for registration in WA and Victoria. It is the certificate issued to apprentices on completion of training.

Current qualification framework

The current CPC30620 qualification has 26 core subjects and 3 electives. This means that 26 subjects are compulsory, and the employer or student only gets to choose 3 electives.

These subjects are selected and created by a Technical Advisory Committee, who are supposed to represent the industry and consult with the industry. The reality is that most of the members have been TAFE trainers with little real-life trade currency, and that training providers often have more say over what should be trained than actual employers in the industry. Australia's apprenticeship training was modelled on the old apprenticeship training created in the United Kingdom. It ignores the fact that we stopped building like they did in Europe 100 years ago, and Australia has developed its own architectural styles, as well as absorbing international influences.

In surveys conducted by the National Painting and Decorating Institute only 28% of employers said they were happy with the training their apprentices receive at TAFE or colleges and 73% said that apprentices require more training in preparation of surfaces. This has led to employer dissatisfaction with training outcomes and poor technical skills in the industry.

Additionally, some colleges are now offering the CPC30620 Certificate III Painting and Decorating qualification to international students. These courses are ofetn delivered 100% in campuses, in as little as 12 months. This means that students are graduating without any experience in the workforce, and sometimes without having set foot on a real construction site. These students have been found to be deficient in their skills and knowledge, and although deemed 'competent' by the college, they have been found to be incompetent by employers.

Increasing Specialisation

The reality is that all trades, including painting, are increasingly becoming more and more specialised, with painting companies focusing on technical niche markets. For example, many painting companies only ever do new construction, while others focus on industrial coatings or building maintenance. Very few ever do heritage restoration. This trend can be seen across the construction industry, to the point where some trades have decided to adapt training to reflect the increasing specialisations.

For example, plasterboard hangers only have 22 core units and can choose up to 7 electives from a pool of 28.

Carpentry allows students to choose 7 electives from a pool of 47 electives, including about 20 'specialist electives'.

Bricklaying has only 20 core units and students can choose up to 8 elective units of competency that cover the skills and knowledge of three specialist groups:

• Group A - Traditional and heritage bricklaying
• Group B - Refractory Bricklaying
• Group C - Paving

This allows these trades to specialise in certain types of work, depending on their geographical area and local market.

So why doesn't the painting industry do something similar and allow more electives? I believe there are two reasons.

Firstly, as I stated before, the development of the qualification is tightly controlled by powerful interest groups, such as TAFE teachers, who want to change as little as possible. They are often semi-retired and out-of-touch with the industry as it is. It costs time and money to develop new training materials and update the campus with new tools and equipment. They have taught the same things for 20+ years, and they often aren't interested in changing things at this stage of their careers.

Secondly, some employers and trainers are scared that by allowing more electives and more choice, apprentices and employees won't learn exactly the same as what they did, 40 years earlier. They are ignoring the fact that the industry in 2024 is very different to what it was in the 1980s. There are new tools, new machines, new equipment and new materials. You will often hear old painters say 'they don't teach them like they used to. Back in my day we had to learn much more than they do today'. Although this saying makes old painters feel better about themselves, it is incorrect. A quick check of a transcript issued back in 2003 with transcripts issued today shows that painters who get qualified today are learning an extra 5 subjects in exactly the same amount of time! Painters getting qualified in the 1980s never got training in safety harnesses, lead paint, asbestos encapsulation, SWMS or Elevated Work Platforms. Thank goodness that we don't teach painters like we used to!

An Alternate Model

I was lucky enough to be involved in the development of the latest training package back in 2019. We made many changes, including making protective coatings a core subject, adding lots of extra details to the theory of surface preparation, and including a new unit on asbestos encapsulation. This has greatly improved the quality of training in those important subjects. However, the current qualification still has many deficiencies, and is the least flexible of all the trade qualifications. So I have taken the liberty of proposing an alternate model for discussion. I'm not stating that it has to be done like this, but at least the industry can give some feedback and think about what I'm proposing, before we have the next update.

My proposed model has four main features;

1. Splitting up the decorative finishes unit into its many components. This is because units are supposed to reflect seperate skills, not groups of skills stuck together to make things convenient for colleges. The various skills that make up the current decorative finishes unit are highly specialised and different from eachother. By splitting them up employers and students will be able to select skills that are relevant to them and give more flexibility to their training plans.
2. Creating industry specialisations. The fact is, no painter is good at everything, or needs to be skilled at everything. It is better to be competent in skills that are useful to a student or employer, than to be mediocre at many things. By creating specialisations students and employers will be able to create courses and training that is relevant to their geographical area and market. For example, very few painters will ever do heritage restoration (less than 2%), but we currently require every single painter to learn gilding to get qualified! This is a tremendous waste of time and resources. Allowing specialisations will recognise that industrial painters are just as skilled as painters who do heritage restoration. TAFE colleges located in areas with high numbers of heritage buildings will be able to offer high quality relevant training in their geographic area, while other colleges located in remote areas of Australia might offer different specialisations to suit the needs of the industry in their area.
3. Some units are completely taken out because they are embedded in other units. For example, why do we have a unit just on using tools? Each unit has its own tools and students learn how to use them when they do that unit. (That's the way plasterboard is taught; it has no unit just on tools) Why do we teach measurements and calculations seperately? Each unit should have its own measurements and calculations embedded.
4. Delivery of the course, or assessment, must either take place while the student is employed in the industry, or the student must be able to provide supplementary evidence to prove they have a minimum industry experience of 3 years full time. This would prevent international students getting the qualification after only a year of training in a campus.

Packaging Rules

To achieve this qualification, the candidate would demonstrate competency in:

• 27 units of competency:

• 20 core units
• 7 elective units.

Elective units of competency would be selected as follows:

• 7 from the listed electives
• the elective units can be selected, once only, from any of the groups listed below

Prerequisite units of competency

My model proposes that there are no pre-requisites, because all required skills are embedded in each individual unit

Core units

Erect and dismantle modular scaffolding (new unit) Work safely at heights Operate elevated work platforms up to 11 metres Calculate costs of construction work Work effectively and sustainably in the construction industry Plan and organise work Read and interpret plans and specifications Erect and maintain trestle and plank systems Handle and store painting and decorating materials Remove and replace doors and door and window components Prepare existing coated surface for painting Apply paint by brush and roller Apply texture coat paint finishes by brush, roller (spray removed) Apply paint by spray Apply stains and clear timber finishes Apply modern decorative paint finishes Work safely with lead-painted surfaces in the painting industry Prepare uncoated surfaces for painting Work safely to encapsulate non-friable asbestos in the painting industry Apply WHS requirements, policies and procedures in the construction industry Elective units Protective Maintenance Speciality Apply intumescent coatings Remove graffiti and apply anti-graffiti coatings Apply protective paint coating systems Industrial rope access Line marking Decorative Finishes Speciality Match specific paint colours Apply wallpaper Apply mirror finish Apply lining designs by paint Apply broken colour effects Apply imitation woodgraining Heritage Restoration Speciality Match specific paint colours Apply mirror finish Apply heritage and speciality wallcoverings Apply lining designs by paint Apply stencils Apply gilding Apply imitation marbling Apply imitation woodgraining Apply broken colour effects General Electives Apply trowelled texture coat finishes Design colour schemes for interior and exterior spaces Use conventional spray Create large scale murals Investigate business opportunities Organise finances for new business venture

Should industrial rope access be taught to painters?

Rope access has been part of the trade for over 130 years and was traditionally known as a 'bosun's chair'. It has been taught at several TAFEs around Australia for many years. Many painters are learning this skill again so as to be able to do painting maintenance on multi-story buildings. Currently it is only taught at non-accredited colleges with un-recognised qualifications, which is dangerous for such a high risk activity. It is important that this part of trade training is subject to the Australian Quality Training Framework.

The proposal is for the subject to be an elective in the future. This means it does not have to be part of the course and would only be chosen by employers who do industrial rope access work.

The industry survey showed that about 50% of the industry supported the development of the unit.

Why aren't apprentices required to learn everything related to the trade?

There are currently over 34 subjects related to the trade. However, the current course includes 26 compulsory subjects and 3 electives. This allows employers and students to choose subjects that they feel would be valuable to them and that they can specialise in. Employers and students choose up to 3 subjects as electives. Therefore, no apprentices are learning everything related to the trade. It is not possible to do all 34 subjects within the time for the apprenticeship.

Would there be any changes to length of time it takes to complete an apprenticeship?

No. This has nothing to do with the duration of apprenticeships.

However, I do think that we should specify that to gain this qualification the painter must have real industry experience on real job-sites, not just in a campus, and that the minimum amount of time expected to learn all the required skills should be 3 years.

How can we stop colleges choosing the easiest subjects, to the detriment of other important subjects?

This could be accomplished by providing a weighting system to units, as is done in other trades. Each elective would be allocated points, with a minimum number of points required to acheive the qualification. For example, the unit on applying stencils would be allocated only one point, because it is easy to learn, while a unit on wallpapering would be worth 2 or 3 points, because it takes longer to learn. This would deter colleges from automatically choosing the easiest units.

What's Your Opinion?

I'm keen to get some real industry feedback on my ideas. Real feedback from active painters currently working in the industry. Of course, I'm also interested to hear what TAFE teachers and other trainers think. Maybe you have good ideas I haven't thought of? Maybe you can see problems arising from my proposal.

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