St Patrick's Technical College

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:32): Hashtag #jobsmatter. Our Marshall Liberal government has committed $100 million to create an additional 20,815 apprenticeships and traineeships in South Australia. We are committed to creating jobs and a future for our young people in South Australia. I am committed to working with the minister, the community, businesses, schools, councils and community leaders across the north to ensure that we can create many of these new job opportunities in northern and north-eastern Adelaide.

In June, as part of Catholic Education Week, I had the pleasure of attending a tour of the purpose-built facilities at St Patrick's Technical College on Hooke Road, Edinburgh North. Thank you to the many students and staff from the college for showing me around. Thank you to Hayley Odgers, the marketing and communications coordinator at the college, for providing me with some excellent in-depth information about the college.

St Patrick's Technical College is focused on vocational education and training at a high school level. The college strongly believes in the talent and value of all students, not just the students who choose a university pathway, and they want to get the message out there that taking up a trade should not be viewed as a 'less than' choice. Leaders across the north have been asking me for help to encourage all families, school leaders and students to recognise the value of our young people undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship.

All too often students not on the university pathway are left behind as traditional schools focus on ATAR and university entrance scores as a measure of success. St Patrick's Technical College told me that they measure their success by job outcomes for all students. They told me they have families who come to their college feeling stressed about their child's future because they might not have been a high academic achiever, but once that student has started at the college, with their innovative hands-on practical learning, completely focused on their trade program, the pathway to a successful career via an apprenticeship or traineeship becomes really clear. This has an amazing effect on that young person's self-esteem and self-confidence and affects the rest of their lives.

St Patrick's Technical College celebrated 10 years of excellence in vocational education last year, in 2017. Today, there are over 220 students enrolled in apprenticeships at year 11 and year 12 level at the college. The college has over 800 student alumni who have completed apprenticeships in many different industries in South Australia. St Patrick's Technical College offers seven programs across the subschool areas, in the School of Building and Construction, the School of Community Services, Hospitality and Lifestyle, and the School of Engineering and Transport.

In terms of data provided by the college, the college has a 94 per cent apprenticeship completion rate, and 98 per cent of past students are in paid employment in South Australia. Each program at St Patrick's Technical College combines a certificate II qualification with a fully trades and technical contextualised SACE curriculum. Every student's course includes a focus on employability skills, significant work experience opportunities and the flexibility to engage in a school-based apprenticeship as a core component of SACE.

In partnership with the Skilling Australia Foundation and the Defence Teaming Centre, St Patrick's Technical College is a participant in the Australian government's P-TECH pilot program, which is one of 14 pilot programs across Australia and the only one in South Australia. The partners in the program include St Patrick's Technical College, Skilling Australia Foundation, TAFE SA, Defence Teaming Centre, Saab, Century Engineering and PMB Defence.

I finish with some great news: the Northern Adelaide P-TECH Partnership has been named as a finalist in the Industry Collaboration Award at the 2018 SA Training Awards, being held on 7 September. Well done St Pat's Technical College.