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

I thank Senator McKenzie for the question and for her very strong and passionate interest in this program, particularly in the communities of Geelong and Ballarat. Our government is very committed to helping school students navigate their pathways to further training, further education or employment. We are examining a range of models as to how that can best be achieved, including the US based Pathways to Technology Early College High School, otherwise known as P-TECH. As part of this commitment we are undertaking a half-a-million-dollar trial of two P-TECH sites in Victoria—one in Ballarat and the other in Geelong, as mentioned. Both of those trials commenced this year, and I am delighted to give progress reports to the Senate.

At the Newcomb Secondary College in Geelong, over 80 year 9 students are participating in the first year of the trial. It is compulsory for those students in year 9 and will then become an elective from year 10 onwards. These students are working with a range of local employer partners to develop their STEM skills and job readiness. Employers include: Barwon Health, GMHBA, Tribal Campus, in the ICT space, Bendigo Bank and the Opteon group. I really want to thank those employers for their participation. In Ballarat, IBM have provided Federation College with significant support in developing this model. A dedicated P-TECH class of nearly 20 students is running, and all year 10 students are undertaking P-TECH electives.

I want to particularly take this opportunity to congratulate not just the employer partners in both sites but also the principals from the two schools involved, Phil Honeywell and Shirley Fraser, for their passion and commitment as well as the cooperation of the school communities.

Importantly, the P-TECH model is providing a pathway to work and employment for these school students. It is providing them with a real introduction to the world of work and ensuring that they not only develop more of the hard skills required for successful transition to work once they graduate from school but also those soft skills, in terms of understanding what it is that employers are looking for and better appreciating the roles that exist in their local communities.