Dole-like pay, a lack of support and poor social status are the key factors forcing young Australian apprentices to quit their jobs, according to a new report.

The review of Australia's apprenticeship system found fewer than half of those who take up apprenticeships complete them, a figure even the Federal Government acknowledges is appalling.

"That has got to be addressed," Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans told the ABC's AM program.

"The federal/state overlaps, the huge number of organisations and players in the area, the complete complexity, has meant that reform has been difficult. But I am determined to drive real reform, because the Australian economy needs more people graduating with good level skills for the next few years."

Dean Williams, 28, from Dandenong in Melbourne, is currently in his fourth year of a boilermaker apprenticeship - his second attempt at learning a trade.

At the age of 16 he quit halfway through a fitter and turner apprenticeship because he says it was "just too easy to walk away from".

"I had a few run-ins with bosses... I cracked the sads as a 16-year-old would and I just left it all... I just walked away from it, no-one really chased me, it was just too easy," he said.

While earning an adult apprentice wage now, as a teenager Mr Williams says he was getting just $5.10 an hour and clearing $180 a week.

He says the poor pay is a massive deterrent for young people.

"Someone will offer them a job for $150 a day when they've been getting $150 a week and it's like a gold mine, so they'll just walk away from it," he said.

"Even though an apprenticeship might be better in the long run, they don't care about that they just care about the now."

He says having a mentor or a support person would have made a difference for him.

"The apprentice just needs someone on their side so say 'listen mate, you need a career path'," he said.

"They need someone to say 'well you're halfway through, why don't you finish it, and if you don't like it when you finish then you can move on'."

The Government-appointed expert panel which compiled the report found the system is riddled with problems and in need of significant reform.

Dave Oliver from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) is on the panel and says Australia's apprenticeship system is not working.

He says completion rates in Australia rank well below those in other countries, particularly across Europe, where support mechanisms are in place, pay rates are higher and the status of apprenticeships is better.

"What we found was in those cases where employers were providing the proper mentoring, the proper supervision, high quality training on the job and off the job and some pastoral care for these apprentices they were getting the best results," he said.

"Young apprentices start their apprenticeship, they usually go for a four-year period, and in that period some of them are undergoing significant life changes.

"Some of them are moving out of home, some for the first time are finding boyfriends or girlfriends, they may be finding alcohol, they're getting their driver's licences, and so they actually need the support on the job and off the job.

"That's been a big focus of the panel's work, providing those resources to get those support mechanisms in place to get those completion numbers up."

'Cheap labour'

Mr Oliver says other problems revolve around pay. He says sometimes the pay rate for an apprentice in Australia is on par with the dole.

"We believe in the majority of cases it's been the paying conditions, where it's been so low they leave school and their mates go off into other areas where they get higher rates of pay," he said.

"And in a lot of cases the apprentices have just been brought in as cheap labour where they have been asked to do menial tasks; sweep the floors, wash down machinery, and not do the training that's required, so they can't see what's at the end of the apprenticeship and they will leave."

He says the low wage is partly due to the way apprentices are viewed in the eyes of the community.

"Particularly careers counsellors at school - when young people go off to their careers counsellor, nine times out of 10 the don't get the option of an apprenticeship, it's all about going to university," he said.

"We actually want to lift the status of what a real apprenticeship can deliver. They can deliver highly paid, secure jobs that can lead to a good career path."

Mr Oliver says the panel has also recommended an employer contribution scheme to help fund apprenticeships in down times.

"The logic behind that is that company directors complain about the fact they can't get enough skilled labour, when we hit the downturn the first thing that employers tend to jettison are their apprentices," he said.

"Then when things are on the up again surprise, surprise, they find there is a skills shortage out there.

"So what we were proposing is that there is a fund where employers can contribute so when there is a downturn we can use those funds to maintain the apprentices, to maintain the employment contract."