Apprenticeships and Traineeships

322 Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (1 August 2018). How many new apprenticeships and traineeships it will create each year to reach its commitment of 20,800 over the next 4 years?

1. How will this target will be measured and reported?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Industry and Skills):

1 The Marshall Liberal government is implementing strong reforms to South Australia's training system to address the unacceptable decline in apprentice and trainee numbers in South Australia over the last five years. Under the previous Labor government training commencements fell by 16,900 (66%) to 8,765 from 2012-2017.

The state and federal governments are making a significant investment of $203 million to create an additional 20,800 apprenticeships and traineeships over the next four years. Through our strengthened relationship with the commonwealth, we have successfully secured $103 million through the Skilling Australians Fund. This funding reinforces the state government's $100 million commitment.

Fundamentally, the state government is implementing an industry led training system in South Australia to ensure training is delivered in response to the needs of industry and small business, and importantly, is aligned with real job outcomes. The Department for Industry and Skills is working with industry to deliver training in line with industry requirements through our Skilling South Australia Strategy. It is anticipated that the growth in apprentices and trainees will increase every year over the forward estimates.

2. The state government has a resolute commitment to increase the number of apprentices and trainees to ensure a skilled future workforce across the state. The Department for Industry and Skills will measure and report on training, including training commencements, delivery methods and investments in training programs – as has always been the case.