Stewart McArthur (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Vocational and Further Education. Would the minister inform the House what the coalition government is doing to encourage young people to undertake a trade and technical career?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Vocational and Further Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite not only for his question but for his wonderful leadership in the development of the Australian Technical College, Geelong. This college is built on the grounds of the Gordon Institute of TAFE and is being run in partnership between the Gordon TAFE and local industry. It was a wonderful experience, at the recent formal opening of this Geelong college, to see the great pride, self-belief and enthusiasm of the students, parents and grandparents—great pride, self-belief and enthusiasm which has gone missing over the last 20 to 30 years as we have closed old-style technical schools and replaced them with one-size-fits-all secondary schools with a bias towards and emphasis on getting kids ready for university.

Might I note the member for Corio also understands this. It would be remiss of me not to thank the member for Corio for his significant help in the creation of the Geelong technical college. While I am at it, I should also thank the member for Oxley. This does not happen too often on this side of the House, but could I also thank the member for Oxley for his strong support for an Australian technical college in the south of Brisbane. I appreciated the letter and I must say that in the recent budget the government acted on his plea. Clearly, both members opposite do not share the ‘university or bust’ mindset of their parliamentary leader.

With the introduction of Australian technical colleges, once again young people born with strong technical, vocational or creative skills can access specialised training in year 11 and year 12. Those going to the technical schools, which we have created, end school with a year 12 certificate, one-third of the way through an apprenticeship, two years experience in the workplace and two years of their schooling in a school environment which places a high value on the technical and vocational skills they were born with. Not only that, but in the short 30 months it has taken us to build 20 colleges—there are eight others in the pipeline—we have seen state Labor governments, in most states, follow our lead. This was our intention all along—to show leadership in technical education. We now have several state governments mimicking our initiatives with a commitment to a further 25 old-style technical schools. In fact, the only positive ad that Morris Iemma had in his last election campaign was a rebranded version of our 2004 campaign ads committing to many technical schools. This means that within the next two years we will have more than 50 new Australian technical colleges, state and federal, on over 70 campuses across the country. We will be providing technical and vocational education to years 11 and 12 for nearly 16,000 to 20,000 young Australians.

This is a real technical education revolution. The opposition leader’s proposal to stick an oven or a lathe in a classroom at the back of the secondary school is no revolution.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.