From July this year, it added more targeted support to help more apprentices finish their training. There’s also increased support for women in male-dominated trades, First Nations apprentices, and apprentices working in clean energy jobs.

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Specialist services will begin offering mentoring services to apprentices (including pastoral care and career guidance). It’s a change in line with findings from the Future Trades Report 2024, which notes that “the new generation of leaders remembers their apprenticeships as unwelcoming and disrespectful. They want to create a better, more fulfilling experience for the generation coming up behind them”.

Kruyer, who is in business with his cousin, focuses on building sustainable homes – yet another industry trend. Over the years, technology has radically changed how they do business, while embracing automation has paid dividends.

“Let’s say you’re doing a small task once a week that takes half an hour. A lot of people will think that’s not worth improving or automating because it’s only 26 hours for the year. But if you sit down and spend six hours figuring out how automate it you now never have to do it again,” he says.

Tracking hours manually, both for invoicing and pay runs, is long gone.

“We have it automated to the point where team [members] clock into a specific category on their phone where it tracks the actual live cost against what was estimated. [This then] creates a separate time sheet that syncs with our accounting software to automate pays and give me a live dashboard across all of our projects,” says Kruyer.

For clients, 3D modelling helps price projects at the click of a button, taking the pain out of costing jobs.

“I think one of the hardest things about running a building company is estimating efficiently and accurately. It’s been quite a journey,” he says.

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