Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The National Innovation and Science Agenda is a comprehensive policy document. It recognises that 75 per cent of the fastest growing industries require STEM skills. It does not just focus on some of the research aspects that I spoke about before but steers more investment in STEM and digital literacy initiatives at school and in early learning environments. It includes $65 million to help inspire curiosity and develop science and maths knowledge particularly in early childhood but also throughout education, new online computing challenges for year 5 and 7 students nationally and investment in ICT summer schools for year 9 students. This is all in addition to the work that we have provided in getting the national curriculum focused and delivering in areas like coding, and funding for particular coding programs, as well as the expansion of opportunities for teachers to learn, such as funding for the University of Adelaide's massive open online courses in digital literacy that are helping to boost the skills of teachers right around Australia and to help them deliver the knowledge and information that will empower students in the future.