Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member for Bass fails to give any credence to the history of the Australian Labor Party support for trade training, which goes right back to the workers institutes that grew out of the railway workshops of Invermay that we would otherwise not have any knowledge of. This motion is to point out the sad state of affairs that exists in vocational education and training today. Despite some half-hearted attempts by the federal government to develop new training places, they have concentrated on bricks and mortar and everything that does not count instead of focusing on courses, encouraging students to take them up by providing incentives to young people and also modernising our trade training and our skill development.

There are around one million Australian students in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 in government, Catholic and independent secondary schools who could benefit from federal Labor’s trades training centres in schools program. At the moment, these young people are not being given incentives or encouraged under current programs to continue their education or get into training.

Many tertiary courses are just not suitable for young people and there is a need to start earlier to prepare them for the future. Federal Labor has come up with a real education revolution—one that would turbocharge the training and skills of the next generation of Australians. One of the biggest challenges we face in the future is to preserve our prosperity when the once in a lifetime mining boom comes to an end. We need to be able to fill the skills gap, a gap which is holding many of our enterprising firms back as they are unable to find the workers they need in order to grow.

Not every Australian kid wants to go to university and this plan responds to their needs. We must ensure that these students are given the best possible education and training so they can develop the skills and education they need to secure the job they want in the future. That means providing real career paths to trades and apprenticeships, real choices and real opportunities.

Many of the secondary schools in Tasmania, particularly those in Lyons, now do have some vocational education and training programs, but under the Howard government they have limited access to funds, therefore the programs are not as able to give the outcomes many would want and they have to travel to the cities for further education.

Federal Labor’s trades training centres in schools program would provide between $500,000 and $1.5 million to secondary schools to build or upgrade trade workshops and information, communications and technology labs; metal or woodwork workshops; commercial kitchens; hairdressing facilities; automotive workshops; plumbing workshops; graphic design laboratories, computer laboratories; and facilities for other trades to meet the day-to-day needs of employers. This would allow students to train and pick up work in their communities, which is vital to alleviate the population changes in country areas and areas where skills are being lost.

Federal Labor’s trades training centres in schools plan also includes a commitment to provide $84 million over four years to guarantee access to one day a week of on-the-job training for 20 weeks a year for all Vocational Education and Training in Schools students from years 9 to 12. It also includes a commitment to increase funding to the Enterprise and Career Education Foundation by $8 million over five years to improve linkages between schools and business and develop innovative, high-quality work and training programs for VET in Schools students.

This government’s program is just not working—those students that have started with the private colleges are leaving again, as they have no access to transport and accommodation, which is not part of the package, and they are having to pay for courses just as they would at university but without the access to services. This sort of arrangement just cannot work in country areas. (Time expired)

See this speech in context