Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to talk about the recent launch of the Fast-Track Apprenticeships Program at Swan TAFE in Western Australia. It was my pleasure to attend the launch and also to represent my colleague Ms Julia Gillard, the Minister for Education. At the outset, I need to say that we on this side are strongly committed to increasing investment in training, but not just any investment, not just some wild splurge on spending. We are committed to investment targeted at addressing skills shortages right across the Australian economy. We also want to increase and deepen the skills capacity of the Australian workforce. Ultimately, the aim is to increase workforce participation and productivity.

In my own state of Western Australia, demand for resources and energy has accelerated over the past decade. However, it is also true to say that at a government level we were not prepared. As demand increased there were chronic skills shortages in key industries. The challenges were and remain: ensuring there are sufficient skilled workers to meet demand and upskilling the existing workforce. This government’s Skilling Australia for the Future agenda is a step towards addressing the challenges facing Australia’s training system. Over the next five years, funding will be provided for an additional 711,000 training places. Training places will go to existing workers wanting to upgrade their skills. There are also 300,000 places available to job seekers. These are important investments, as we know that the longer someone is unemployed the harder it is for them to find work. Training programs help enormously to break the cycle of unemployment and consequent poverty.

However, investment in training really is only part of the solution. What we want to develop is a truly responsive, demand-driven training system, a national training system that addresses the challenges of: recognising industry skill needs, including in areas of current and emerging skills shortages, particularly in traditional trades; re-engaging with an ageing workforce; providing workers with training that suits their immediate learning needs; and adapting to changing technology and emerging industries. We all know the training system must be able to equip the workforce with a set of skills that are more flexible and adaptive. For that to occur, we need cultural change and organisational change in how we deliver training programs. In the past, time based delivery models were the norm. However, as we all know, they worked as a disincentive to taking up a trade.

We also have a significant shortfall between the number of apprentices entering apprenticeships and the demand for skilled tradespeople. The challenge is to increase the numbers of suitably qualified tradespeople in industry. At the same time we need desperately to increase apprenticeship completion rates. One way to achieve these objectives is to look at a competency based training model rather than the traditional time based training model. To that end the current government has committed over $46 million over four years to the Australian Apprenticeship Workforce Skills Development program. This program will support initiatives such as Fast-Track Apprenticeships.

The aim of the program is to support registered training providers to take advantage of new flexibilities. This means removing time based restrictions on apprenticeship qualifications. The program contributes to the initial costs of negotiating with employers to make changes to existing wage structures. This is an important issue, as wage structures need to reflect the cost of accelerated on- and off-the-job training. The program will also contribute to the development of new training material.

I was very pleased our local training provider, Swan TAFE, is at the forefront of the development of accelerated apprenticeship training. Swan TAFE has completed 15 pilot projects and accelerated the learning of many hundreds of apprentices to date. These apprenticeships are in occupational trades such as building and construction, furniture making, engineering, automotive, electrotechnology and hospitality. Clearly, these are diverse trades, and employers have sought a varied mix of training methodologies, including competency based training, recognition of prior learning, skills gap training and mentoring. The aim is to maximise training and minimise the cost and the time spent away from work.

Swan TAFE has developed an innovative brokerage model. This model means Swan TAFE is ideally placed to replicate these successes across a broader industry landscape. Charles Darwin University is also a partner in this project. That partnership is providing greater opportunities for apprentices across Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It has enabled apprentices to complete their apprenticeships in a significantly shorter time frame. Funding by the government will enable a further seven projects to start in the immediate future.

Australia, as we all know, has not experienced the rapid increase in unemployment that has become common in a range of Western countries. In fact, our experience of the global financial crisis and the resulting recession the rest of the world has entered is much shallower. That can be directly attributed to this government’s response in the very early days of the GFC. The stimulus packages announced last year and earlier this year have created, as we thought they would, their own demand for skilled workers. However, at this stage we should not be complacent. Improving the skill base of our labour pool is an essential ingredient in our ongoing economic recovery. It is also important for our future prosperity.

In my own state of Western Australia we need to get ready for the next wave of growth. Currently, we have over 1,000 operating mine sites, producing over 50 different minerals. Added to that are a further 27 projects at an advanced planning stage. The projects include the Gorgon expansion and the construction of the multi-user deepwater port at Oakajee outside of Geraldton. There are also non-mining projects coming soon, such as the construction of the National Broadband Network.

Projects such as these reflect the complexity of the future directions of our economy. To take but one example, Gorgon involves much more than just extracting LNG and shipping it to export markets; it also involves industrial scale carbon capture and sequestration. This project is at the cutting edge of science and technology innovation. It will see Australia continue to be a global leader in mining and technology services. We will need a highly skilled, highly competent workforce. As succinctly put by my colleague Mr Martin Ferguson, the Minister for Resources and Energy, ‘the successes of tomorrow will be built on the investment we make today’.