Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fierravanti-Wells for her question. She has a longstanding interest in young Australians and in particular in the skilling of Australians. The Skills for the Future program—$837 million over five years—is a dramatic gesture to upskill Australians and in particular to help adults in need of literacy and numeracy skills to enter the workforce. There will, in the whole package, as Senator Minchin has outlined, be more university places for engineering and incentives for higher technical skills. But I want to focus on one particular element—that is, the work skills vouchers. That element comprises almost half of the total package, at $408 million over five years.

A basic education clearly is critical to workforce success, to getting a job and being able to take all the rich opportunities that an economy like Australia’s now offers people who have skills. So, from January next year, work skills vouchers will help 30,000 Australians who are over 25 years of age and who do not have year 12 or equivalent qualifications to get the qualifications they want or they need to get work. What the package will provide is $3,000 to use in a TAFE, a private or a community college for all accredited literacy, numeracy and basic education courses and all vocational certificate II courses. This in effect gives many, many Australians—we expect 30,000 Australians—a second chance at getting the skills they need to take all the opportunities Australia offers. The vouchers could be used, for example, for a certificate II in adult general education, or in automotive, mechanical and vehicle servicing, or in community services—in particular, children’s services—or in hospitality; for example, in commercial cookery.

Australians over 25 without year 12 or equivalent qualifications will have this opportunity. Priority will be given firstly to unskilled workers who are wishing to acquire qualifications, then to income support recipients—perhaps parents or carers who are returning to the workforce and facing or about to face active Jobsearch requirements within the next two years—then to unemployed job seekers in receipt of income support, then to those in Job Network and those actively looking for work and then to others not looking for work. They can apply for the vouchers from next month, when there will be a telephone hotline, a website and further details available.

There are other initiatives in the package. There is support for mid-career apprentices from July 2007. There will be financial incentives that will be paid to either employers or workers who decide they want to upgrade their skills mid-career by moving from work to an apprenticeship at certificate III or IV level, and that will give other people further opportunities.

There are business skills vouchers for apprentices—that will be $12 million over five years. This is particularly important. The Labor Party have consistently ignored the opportunity for people to get into business. They never gave people the real opportunity.