VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills. Can the minister inform the house about how successful South Australia has been in having people take up a VET qualification to improve their skills for work?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:03): I would like to thank the member for Port Adelaide for this important question. I was pleased to see a recent report of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research that showed South Australia is doing very well, in fact, in improving the skills that people need for trades and other jobs in our workforce. This report provides us with information about state and territory enrolments, full-year training equivalents, and other data for the vocational education and training sector. It also provides a snapshot of the apprentices and trainees who are gaining qualifications for better jobs.

Of course, increased skills and qualifications are critically important to increasing our state's productivity, not to mention the benefit they have for South Australians at a very personal level. That is why the state government is investing in further education and training through our very successful Skills for All initiative.

The report shows that in South Australia, for instance, the number of students for 2011 increased by 15.5 per cent compared to a 3.1 per cent national increase. That means that South Australia had the highest growth rate in the nation for VET students. The number of full-year training equivalents increased by 19 per cent, while nationally the increase was 8.5 per cent. South Australia had the second highest growth rate in the nation, with Western Australia recording the lowest. The number of subject enrolments increased by 21.6 per cent. Again, South Australia had the highest growth rate in the nation, with the national increase at 5 per cent.

Can I add that the growth rate for apprenticeships and traineeships has also been positive, with 38,000 apprentices and trainees in training in South Australia as at 31 December 2012, a 7.1 per cent increase over the previous year and higher than the national increase of 1.6 per cent. It is interesting to note that more women than ever were taking up an apprenticeship or traineeship too, with 10,300 commencements, which is an 8.1 per cent increase on 2011—our highest number of females starting training on record.

We also know that this report noted that South Australians are undertaking higher level qualifications at a rate well above the national average. It reflects what we already know about the success of our Skills for All training initiative. We have seen more than 76,000 enrolments in training since we introduced this policy last July. That was a 43 per cent increase in enrolments compared to the same time the previous year. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the more than 140,000 students who undertook further education and training opportunities in the VET sector in 2012 and the thousands of people who are doing so now through Skills for All.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary from the member for Unley.