Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was National TAFE Day yesterday, and last night I attended a function celebrating National TAFE Day here at Parliament House. It is important to acknowledge and celebrate the importance that the TAFE sector has for our community. I welcome all the organisations and representatives of the sector who were present yesterday, throughout the day and last night at the function. I want to acknowledge that their passion and commitment for TAFE should be recognised. It was especially great for me to catch up with my dear friend John Speight. He is still working for the union cause as part of his lifelong commitment to his community; for the rights of workers and for the right to education.

TAFEs provide opportunities for many people from varied life circumstances; people who are currently in the workforce looking to retrain or looking to develop new skill sets in order to be better equipped for their current job and/or possible future jobs; people who are looking to become qualified for future employment; people who are looking to enter a pathway to other employment; and, in particular, early school leavers and the many young people in my electorate. TAFEs also provide opportunities for people who have been out of the workforce for a long period of time, whether it be as a result of redundancy or other situations in their life. They too require some opportunity to reskill and re-educate themselves.

I have a wonderful TAFE facility in my electorate, the Kangan Institute of TAFE, which has a campus in Broadmeadows, a very large and good campus. It also has a campus in Docklands. It is a fantastic facility that is very important to the local community. It not only provides our local students and residents with excellent opportunities for training and opportunities to achieve practical experience; it also provides many social and community services—including community development for my residents.

My electorate is very diverse, and there are many people who live there who have a very large range of skill sets. In particular, I am thinking of the many Iraqis who have settled in Calwell over the last 10 years who have come to Australia with qualifications and skills that unfortunately are not recognised here in this country. As a result, they are unable to pursue careers that match the skill sets that they have. One of their best options for reskilling and requalifying is to take part in the many courses that are available to them at Kangan TAFE. Many of my constituents have a very large skill set in relation to language competency, and that is often an underappreciated skill. You can see that if not for TAFE being present in my electorate many of my constituents would probably not have an opportunity to either refine or further develop their skills and qualifications.

The Kangan Batman Institute of TAFE, apart from providing excellent courses for the local constituency, also has a social engagement role and a particular focus on Indigenous education. I want to speak a little bit about the Indigenous school at the Kangan Batman Institute of TAFE. The school is the Gunung-Willam-Balluk Learning Centre. We are very proud of that learning centre. It delivers more than 20 nationally and state accredited courses to members of the local Indigenous community.

This Gunung-Willam-Balluk Learning Centre is a fine example of Kangan's commitment to Indigenous education. The importance of the centre was acknowledged when it was awarded the 2013 Wurreker Award as the Training Provider/TAFE Institute of the Year. So we are very proud we have a fine tradition and a fine institution in my electorate for our local Indigenous community.

TAFE touches the lives of many people in so many ways. Therefore, it is important that governments elevate and maintain TAFE funding, and also that they elevate and maintain the importance of TAFE. The results are of course very evident in my community. (Time expired)