WorldSkills Australia

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister update the house about the team SA selection for the upcoming WorldSkills national event in Brisbane?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (15:01): I am happier than you would know to be up and answering this question today. I had a wonderful afternoon on Saturday, spent in Belair with South Australia's Skills Commissioner, Cameron Baker, where we had the absolute privilege and honour of presenting blazers and uniforms to those young people who will be representing South Australia in the national WorldSkills competition in Brisbane in June.

This year, the number of young people who will be representing South Australia in the national competition is 36 in the open section and 19 in the VET in schools section. That compares to the numbers from just 2023, which were seven in the open section and two in the VET in schools section. We are seeing enormous growth here, which is fantastic news. We presented the uniforms to young people from right across the state—and there is one particular person who I will mention in a second—who will be competing in areas including baking, beauty therapy, graphic design, landscape construction, motorcycle mechanics, painting and decorating, wall and floor tiling, welding, plumbing and heating, plastering and drywall applications, fitting, electrical installations, and cookery.

They will all be wearing their South Australian uniform and getting the opportunity to go to Brisbane in June and compete for a gold medal. I have my fingers crossed at what we will see out of those 36 competitors in the open section and the 19 in the VET in schools section. We might win gold and, if we do, they will have the privilege of representing Australia in Shanghai next year.

People in this place will have heard many of us say, on a number of occasions, that you don't need to go to university for a great career. I say it and the Premier says it, and it's absolutely true. This is where we make it real if we want to offer inspiration to young people, including some of the ones who are here today with the privilege of listening to question time. This is how we inspire other young people to take on a career in a trade or a vocational education and training pathway instead of a career that might be a university pathway.

I am painfully aware, as a minister who has visited hundreds of schools and has spent probably more time in classrooms with year 9 students than I would care to have had—talking to them about their futures and what they might want to do with their lives—and I can tell you that they aren't particularly interested in what I have to say or in what any other adult has to say. But if they can see other young people who have chosen that pathway and who perhaps represent South Australia in WorldSkills, that is the kind of inspiration that they need to say, 'I might do that too.'

There is one particular young person who I want to mention, who I thought was absolutely inspirational. It was an honour for me to present him his uniform on the weekend. He is a young man from Whyalla Secondary College who is competing in commercial cookery in Brisbane. He is undertaking a school-based apprenticeship. He has a single mum, he is one of a number of siblings, and he has basically not left Whyalla (where he lives) ever before. He was incredibly nervous about coming to town to be a part of this and incredibly nervous about travelling to Brisbane in a few weeks' time and competing in a national competition.

But that is his story, and when other young people like him, when other South Australians hear about someone having the opportunity to go and compete and represent their state, and possibly go and compete and represent their nation in some of these trades—they are the stories that we need to tell. I really hope that I am able to come back to this place later and tell some success stories about some of those competitors who will get a chance to go to Shanghai and represent Australia.