History
What do we do?
Apprenticeships Queensland Limited is a Group Training Company, providing employment opportunities for apprentices and trainees across a broad range of vocational areas, through partnerships with host trainers.
How did we get here?
Back in 1986....difficult economic conditions were changing and reshaping much of Australian business and industry. Australian industry was short of skilled workers, but economic uncertainty made employers wary of long-term commitments such as apprenticeships.
New and more efficient ways of training our workforce were being explored, and so began the first group training scheme in Ipswich.
In June 1986, Ipswich City Council and the then Moreton Shire Council co-sponsored the Ipswich-Moreton Community Apprenticeship Scheme (IMCAS). Council and community representatives formed a board of volunteers to establish a legal entity with the objective of finding opportunities for people to undertake apprenticeships.
The next 18 months saw some of the worst economic conditions Australia had seen since the Great Depression. But at IMCAS, the scheme had grown from nothing to 41 apprentices, who had been kept in full-time employment during a difficult time.
Continued growth through the next 20 years meant moves and upgrades to bigger and better premises, and the renaming of the scheme to Apprenticeships Queensland to keep pace with contemporary marketing methods.
In 2008….Apprenticeships Queensland is a not-for-profit, community based company limited by guarantee, and currently employing 300 apprentices and trainees and 15 staff. The company is governed by a board of directors, voluntarily giving their time and expertise, and who themselves are representative of the wider community, the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, and the Ipswich City Council.
In 2011….Apprenticeships Queensland is a not-for-profit, community based company limited by guarantee, and currently employing several hundred apprentices, trainees and support staff. The company is governed by a board of directors, voluntarily giving their time and expertise, and who themselves are representative of the wider community, the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, and the Ipswich City Council.
In this, our 25th anniversary year, Apprenticeships Queensland is forward-focussed, and finding new ways to engage with business, industry and the wider community so that Australia has a skilled workforce.
