Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to rise in support of the Albanese Labor government's strategy to revitalise national planning in vocational education and training. We know that, right across Australia, we are facing one of our biggest economic challenges in decades: a lack of skilled workers across the labour market. Our strategy to revitalise national planning and vocational education and training aims to improve the way in which skills are delivered to the labour market in the future.

Earlier today, the Minister for Skills and Training made a statement that outlined the initiatives of Jobs and Skills Australia and jobs and skills councils to help deliver the workforce that Australia desperately needs for the future. Recently, during National Skills Week, we had the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of TAFE students, teachers, trainers and support staff right across the vocational education and training sector and celebrate the contributions they make to our communities and to our country. We know that the vocational education and training sector—and TAFE, at the heart of that—is one of our greatest national assets. It is vital, if we are to address the worst skills shortages facing this country in decades, to invest properly in TAFE in order to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Our government is putting TAFE back at the heart of Australia's vocational education and training sector after, unfortunately, a decade of neglect by the previous government. I love TAFE. I love visiting the local TAFEs in my electorate, such as the Holmesglen Institute campuses. I like visiting the Box Hill Institute, which services my community, and it is a real thrill to hear stories from students and teachers of their learning journeys and the wonderful careers that they've been able to pursue because of TAFE.

Our fee-free TAFE program is a flagship initiative to help students seeking opportunities to meet cost-of-living challenges and support key industries to address skills shortages. The numbers speak for themselves. In the first six months alone, the target of 180,000 enrolments was well exceeded by our government, with almost 215,000 Australians enrolling in a fee-free course. That is wonderful news for this country. That is 215,000 people who are accessing skills training in areas where skilled workers are needed. Priority sectors under the fee-free TAFE program include agriculture, care, construction, defence, early childhood education, hospitality and tourism, sovereign capability, and technology and digital. Enrolments in fee-free TAFE have been strong across all priority sectors, with over 51,000 care sector course enrolments, over 16,700 technology and digital sector course enrolments and almost 21,000 enrolments in the construction sector.

The data shows fee-free TAFE is supporting Australians that have struggled to break into the labour market, with enrolments including almost 51,000 jobseekers, over 15,000 people with a disability and almost 7,000 First Nations Australians. Significantly, women make up over 60 per cent of the intake, with almost 130,000 women taking on a qualification under the program. More than a third of enrolments—over 34 per cent—are in inner and outer regional locations, and whilst that's all wonderful, we're not stopping there. We're making funding available for a further 300,000 fee-free TAFE places, starting in January next year.

I think it is so important to remind the House now of the important steps we've taken to improve access to training for Australians. This year's National Skills Week theme of 'What are you looking for?' has been particularly apt when we think about matching what people are looking for in a career and in their life with skills training through the vocational education and training sector. I had the absolute honour of helping to launch National Skills Week at Monash College in Victoria, which is a great institution that helps people to get the skills they need for jobs now and jobs in the future.

Unfortunately, when we came into government, the labour market skills shortages right across Australia ran as deep as they did wide. The 2022 Skills Priority List revealed that the number of occupations suffering skill shortages almost doubled, jumping from 153 occupations in 2021 to 286. The trades have been hit hard. The latest vacancy figures for June of this year tell a story. As the Minister for Skills and Training pointed out a few weeks ago, when launching National Skills Week, we need close to 5,000 motor mechanics, more than 3,000 electricians and 4,000 metal fitters and machinists. Additionally, in the vital care sector, there are around 9,000 vacancies. Across the top 20 occupations in demand nationally, almost half have direct VET pathways, including six occupations within the top 10.

In simple terms, these job vacancies mean communities cannot access the services they need. The minister recently also announced that the Albanese government is establishing a VET Qualification Reform Design Group to be chaired by Craig Robertson, CEO of the Victorian Skills Authority—someone I had the great pleasure of speaking with recently, during National Skills Week. The role of the VET Qualification Reform Design Group will be to deliver simpler, more responsive systems. The result will be a simpler system that strikes a balance between industry skill needs while recognising transferable skills.

I'm really proud that our government is taking action to make one of the most significant investments in the delivery of training in recent history. We took immediate action following the 2022 federal election, bringing together Australians from unions, industry groups and civil society at the Jobs and Skills Summit. We've been working with state and territory governments to fund 180,000 fee-free TAFE places, but, of course, we've exceeded that target. We've heard from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, at the National Press Club, when he released his Intergenerational reportthe sixth iteration of its kind. The report highlighted the fact that we need to be thinking about the skills for the future. It is really something that rests on the shoulders of all of us in this place: to not just think of the immediate term but of the future, and to think of lifelong learning as well, quite significantly, and not just about post-secondary education.

It was really great to be able to talk at Monash College in Victoria, during National Skills Week, about their newly created Future Skills division, which does go some way to addressing the issue of needing to think about future skills when it comes to our industry and skills planning. In my own community, I have been meeting with a range of different stakeholders. I had the pleasure, in August, of attending the Monash Precinct Network industry roundtable, and I got to spend the afternoon with representatives of some outstanding organisations from the education, research, business and industry sectors. This is a precinct network that launched in April, and I'm always delighted to be able to support the work that they do. The Monash Precinct Network in my electorate contributes $9.4 billion to the Victorian economy each year, supporting more than 13,000 businesses and more than 82,000 employees. It's a world-class precinct. It has impact globally, and what was really clear from the attendees—including Monash University, Eastern Innovation, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Monash Tech School, the CSIRO, the Australian Synchrotron and the Australian National Fabrication Facility—is that we need to invest more in skills. I heard that from the attendees from advanced manufacturing businesses, science technology and research businesses, defence businesses as well as aerial system manufacturers. This really was the common theme—that we need to be able to attract and retain future workforces in STEM to be able to access the talent and skills that are in this country. That will mean that we will be competitive, not just now but into the future. We had a really terrific conversation too about how industry and businesses can position themselves to be employers of choice for women.

We inherited a pretty sorry state of affairs, but we know all about the debt and the massive skills deficit that we inherited. I'm really pleased that we're looking forward and working with stakeholders from industry and research groups right across all parts of the community that need skills to flourish for our future to be strong. I'm really pleased to be able to stand here to support our plan to revitalise national planning in vocational education and training, and I'm really proud to be a part of this government, with the Minister for Skills and Training leading this work.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 16:17