Construction Industry

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:44): My question is for the Minister for Innovation and Skills. Can the minister update the house about how the Marshall Liberal government is contributing to the COVID recovery in South Australia through construction, training and jobs?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (14:44): I thank the member for Elder for her question and also her interest in the construction industry here in South Australia. The Marshall government is creating jobs and supporting South Australians to get the skills and qualifications they need to work in rewarding careers, including within the building and construction industry here in South Australia.

Today, I tabled the Construction Industry Training Board Annual Report 2021, which highlights South Australia's achievements in training and job creation across the industry. Construction Industry Training Fund levy revenue for the 2020-21 period was $28.2 million, an increase of $7.9 million from the previous financial year.

This significant increase in levy revenues is credited to the success of the Marshall government's financial stimulus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and programs such as the HomeBuilder grant, the Local Government Infrastructure Partnership Program and fast-tracking investment in infrastructure spending, including our $17.9 billion investment in infrastructure. Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the CITB invested $18.3 million across its three key programs over that period:

1,184 students participated in the doorways2construction school-based career pathway for building and construction. This reflects a 31 per cent increase in participation over the past five years;

$11.7 million was allocated to support a record number of 5,912 building and construction apprentices and included additional support to mature-age and Aboriginal apprentices;

$4.3 million supported 12,869 workers to complete subsidised construction skills training to develop their skills and career opportunities; and

the tradie2trainer initiative was expanded, and 36 tradespeople across the state completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

This is important because these are people who are coming off the tools and they have that practical experience. We have record numbers of apprentices joining the construction industry, and now there are even more trainees and assessors to ensure they get quality training both on and off the job. This reflects an increase in the registered training organisation demand for suitably qualified staff to deliver building and construction training.

The CITB is part of our Flexible Industry Pathways in our South Australian schools. The CITB will grow and develop the doorways2construction initiative and it provides a gateway for industry immersion in programs from year 7—which, of course, will be the first year of high school from next year, bringing South Australia in line with every other state and territory in the country—allowing younger students to gain hands-on experience in the building industry.

This year, the CITB's innovative Try a Trade program has been extended and expanded to include a female stream, offering training for females interested in trains—in trades, sorry—and, of course we would like to see more interest in trains as well. I was very pleased to be there last week down at Tonsley meeting a number of the young women who were in their second day of this program, with the Premier and the education minister and, boy, they really enjoyed the experience that they had and were very keen. They were from schools right across the metropolitan area and they really enjoyed the experience they had.

A record $26 million has been invested by the CITB into the annual training plan, including more than $1.2 million for programs in schools. The plan allocates more than $19 million to support training for construction apprentices and over $5 million to help existing construction workers to access more than 200 subsidised short courses.

The SPEAKER: Order! The time for answering the question has expired.