Vocational Education and Training

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Education. On what basis does the minister believe that courses, including English spoken word, education support and child care, are a waste of students' time and taxpayers' money. With your leave, Mr Speaker, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BOYER: On Tuesday, InDaily reported that Marden College will no longer be offering particular courses next year, with the minister quoted as saying, 'Courses that are a waste of students' time and taxpayers' money will not be supported.'

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:01): I thank the member for the question. I point out that the quote he identified in his explanation does not actually match up with its use in the question. I did not ever say that child care, for example, would not be supported. In fact, child care is one of the key 26 pathways, for example, that is being supported that will continue to be offered in schools. It specifically identified—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Wright!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The member for Wright makes a claim without justification. The fact is that child care is identified as one of the 26 Flexible Industry Pathways that this government is investing in and identified as having skills shortages. One of the wicked problems that the government's reforms in vocational education and training is seeking to fix is that we have a model of training in vocational pathways, called Training Guarantee for SACE Students. It is funding provided by the Minister for Innovation and Skills' department that supports school students to undertake VET pathways while they are at school.

The challenge in this area, where a school provides that VET pathway for a student who doesn't intend to go onto that pathway to employment but then seeks to do another VET course later, is that the entitlement with the training guarantee for school students is for them to do a cert III once. When we came to government, for example, many of our students who then wanted to undertake traineeships or apprenticeships or subsequent vocational education and training had indeed had their entitlement under the TGSS spent.

Our government had to refund many of those students so they didn't have a block on their future capacity to do a vocational education and training pathway, because we value vocational education and training. We value it so much that we are seeking to provide—through our careers counselling, improvements through our public messaging, through our advertising, through schools and indeed in the public and in our investments in training—more than $200 million of new money introduced by this government.

We are seeking to reassure students and families and parents, and indeed educate those in the schooling sector who weren't previously on board, that vocational skills and technical qualifications are often the pathways to rich, exciting and diverse careers, great jobs and reliable careers. Indeed, 80 per cent of the fastest growing job areas in our economy are often in skilled and technical pathways, whether it's aquaculture or agriculture or cyber or mining and resources or traditional trades. There are 26 areas on the website. I very much encourage the member for Wright to have a look at the Flexible Industry Pathways that have been identified.

They have been identified on the basis that these are the areas where there are job outcomes. They have been identified on the basis that the Industry Skills Councils, comprising industry representatives and business representatives in South Australia, have said that these are the areas where there is jobs growth and where there are pathways to employment.

So when a student has done a vocational pathway—preferably with good careers counselling—some VETRO, some stackable VET potentially, some introduction to trades in year 10, or even year 9 or earlier, which is part of our reform too, they can then go on to a cert II or a cert III when they are in year 11 or 12 that is identified as a genuine pathway to employment. Their parents can be reassured that there's a job at the end of it, straight out at the end of school. They could even get a traineeship or an apprenticeship while they are still at school.

We will help them get their SACE. We will rearrange the school day, the school year necessarily, to work with their business so they can get their SACE as well, be on a pathway, go into further training or go on to university. This is a very exciting set of reforms, and we are very proud of the work we are doing to reinvigorate VET in South Australia and increase its profile and increase its support.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The time for answering the question has expired. Before I call the member for West Torrens, I warn the member for Wright.