JOB SKILLS

Mr RAU (Enfield) (15:05): My question is directed to the Minister for Education and Children's Services. What initiatives are taking place in schools to help young people gain practical job skills that will equip them for the workplace?

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education and Children's Services, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:05): I thank the member for Enfield for his question, and I note his advocacy for young people and the need to get them into the workplace with employability skills and access to those extensive numbers of jobs in mining, defence, construction, electronics, advanced manufacturing and the service industries, all of which are growing and which have a massive shortage of skills.

We do know that in the past schools, both public and private, have been very good at giving young people vocational skills and collaborating with local industry. However, there is an increasing need for higher levels of certification: diploma level and university qualifications. The way to get that, of course, is to have greater school retention, more extensive youth engagement and a better policy of school to work so that we can link schools and their agenda in with the employment opportunities within particular suburbs.

Taking the lead in this area, of course, are our 10 new Trade Schools for the Future and a range of school-to-work initiatives, which include our new SACE. The new SACE system is guaranteed by the very nature of its design to encourage young people to be involved in not just the normal academic range of qualifications from school but also those subjects related to vocational training, apprenticeships, school-based apprenticeships and part-time employment.

We are investing a total of $84 million in both our trade schools and our new SACE system. From this year, with our 10 trade schools open for business across the state, we expect an increasing number of school-based apprenticeships to work with our staff who are engaged in brokering deals between local businesses and making sure that young people see relevance and opportunity, but more importantly that those opportunities are taken up by young people with employability skills.

We do know that the school-based apprenticeships that have already been brokered have been in those areas of extensive shortage, such as the automotive, engineering and building industries. It is also worth noting that this year's year 9 students will be taking the literacy and numeracy test as part of a national testing program across the country, and they will be the first young people (whether in Catholic, independent or government schools) to graduate with the new SACE system in 2011.

I have recently advised 250 schools within both the government and non-government systems of grants totalling $4.8 million that will be delivered this year to increase the training of school teachers. It will involve training more than 7,500 teachers to work with the newly developed SACE program. The new federal government also recognises the importance of developing work skills in young people, and we are working together to make sure that employability skills and complex workforce requirements are enmeshed with those young people's skills leaving our schooling system.

I must say that there is no better time to work in this area, because there are massive job opportunities, huge investments across industries in this state and very wide opportunities for young people. That is why we have lifted the school leaving age, we have increased the age of compulsory education and we are working to introduce our new SACE, as well as making sure that our Trade Schools for the Future can really link those young people with the jobs that are available in these burgeoning industries in our current economy.