STEM Education

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Higher Education and Skills. Can the minister inform the house about any new initiative or partnership to support South Australian university students launch into STEM careers?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:21): Yes, I can. As members will have detected, STEM—or occasionally, with the addition of arts, it is known as STEAM—is one of the major priorities for this government in education, right from the very early years all the way through to university or VET courses and on to careers. In fact, it is important to note that science teaching starts in earnest in primary school, which is why we have chosen to put science labs into 77 primary schools, which will not be a waste of money, as some people have suggested.

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is called to order.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Because it is essential that students from reception, year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5, year 6 also get science education. It is not a waste to invest in those years, irrespective of where year 7 ends up. The member has asked a question specifically at the other end of our education system, which is around what happens with universities.

Just today, I was in a meeting with an organisation that is about developing a platform for showing students pathways from studying science subjects in upper secondary through into university and what careers they can get and understanding what skills are required to build to those careers. We know that students are interested in science. What we want them to do is appreciate how gaining a deep knowledge of those subject areas will lead to good employment for the rest of their lives. To do that, it is best if we have partnerships with businesses, companies and institutions that employ people who have science expertise and STEM expertise.

I was very pleased to be involved in a launch with Lockheed Martin recently, who have agreed to contribute $62,000 over the next two years to give training to eight students not only to support them in their studies but to support them to come into Lockheed Martin to be mentored and to have work experience so that the line between what they are learning at university and what their future career will be becomes blurred, which is exactly what we need to be doing in education. There needs to be a blurring of the lines between work and post-school study, post-school study and secondary, secondary and primary.

The launch was attended by four students from one of the schools I know that is very dear to the member's heart, The Heights. The four students were Ish, Alexandra, Tom and Ragat, and it was very good of them to turn up to the launch because it was not only a weekend but it was the first weekend of the school holidays. Nonetheless, they climbed into their school uniforms and showed up and were taken on by the people working at Lockheed Martin to show them the kind of simulation technology that they have at Lockheed Martin, the submarine technology, in particular, that we know is going to be a huge part of our future.

What we need to make sure is that we realise from the idea, the concept of the submarine project, the reality of what that means for students today, because for them to be successful in working directly on the submarines and all the allied industries that are going to benefit from having the submarines, they need to be studying now to be ready for that. They need to be studying whether they are in Year 3 or whether they are in university. They need to be studying now. This government has invested in that—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: This government has backed our commitment to a very substantial—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: —commitment financially, and I am delighted that we have been able to partner with many organisations but in this case in particular with Lockheed Martin.