VET PROGRAM

40 Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (10 July 2007).

1. How will the targeted increase the number of South Australians participating in VET programs be achieved, given that there is a decrease in funding for these programs in 2007-08?

2. Why did the number of student hours by South Australians participating in VET programs fall short of the 2006-07 target by 140,000 hours?

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Youth, Minister for Gambling):

1. The Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology has been implementing a number of changes which are aimed at reducing administrative overheads so that a higher proportion of funding could be available for training delivery. The increase is equivalent to about 2,000 more students on a base of around 110,000 and this is expected to be accommodated within the savings already made.

2. The number of student hours (18,260,000) was an early estimate, based on the assumption that the adjustment factors used to convert raw student data into the measure used for national reporting would be the same for 2006 as for 2005 (the Portfolio Statement targets are required before the actual figures are known). In fact, this was a conservative estimate. The final 2006-07 result is now estimated to be around 18,700,000 hours.