Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

School principals have welcomed the trades training centre initiative, but it is really to do with timing, payment of money and whether schools can combine. For example, St Edmund’s College in Ipswich have talked to me about what they describe as an Ipswich trades training centre. They have had some consultations with St Mary’s College, a fellow Catholic school, as well as Ipswich Girls Grammar School and Ipswich Grammar School. They have different emphases when it comes to trades training in their particular schools and they have discussed with me whether they can in fact combine and make a joint application for an Ipswich trades training centre. I have spoken to Mayor Paul Pisasale, the Mayor of Ipswich, about this issue; he supports it. I have also spoken to the Mayor of the new Lockyer Valley Regional Council, Steve Jones, about a trades training centre for the Lockyer Valley, for the Lockyer District State High School and also for Laidley State High School. When might the money come? Is it possible to pool together, and can schools therefore specialise when it comes to trades training so that, for example, someone can emphasise the engineering aspects and someone else can emphasise CAD?

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