Vocational Education and Training

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (14:50): My question is to the outstanding Minister for Education, Training and Skills. How is the government's investment in vocational education and training helping to strengthen South Australia's workforce and support local industry needs, including in trades?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Minister for Police) (14:50): How refreshing it is to have a member of parliament who reads the whole question we give them. Fantastic. I am very, very pleased to have an opportunity to update the house on some important data that we have recently received about how we are going in terms of building the workforce that South Australia needs for a whole range of really important projects that everyone in this place is well and truly aware of.

We have a huge challenge in front of us; there is no doubt about that. For South Australia, we need an additional 78,500 VET trained workers in our state alone over the next five years. That is an enormous task, but it is also, of course, an enormous period of opportunity for our state. The projects that these not just young South Australians but primarily young South Australians have at their fingertips, if they can get the qualifications and skills they need, include working on some truly transformative and iconic projects.

I am talking about a non-stop north-south motorway, the rollout of a second year of teacher-led play-based learning before students start reception, all the new homes the Minister for Planning is working on, and the delivery of AUKUS, just to name a few. Of course, all those projects share the same challenge and that is making sure that we actually have the workforce we need to deliver those projects.

Just recently, we received some new data from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research, which actually lives here in Adelaide. It shows the investment that this government has made in VET training over the last year. I have to say that the data we have tells a really good story. In fact, it shows that government investment in VET in our state rose nearly 10 per cent in 2024 compared with the last year.

Australian and South Australian governments allocated a combined $422 million to training in 2024, which was up 9.4 per cent compared with 2023. This is the largest amount invested in VET in South Australia since we started keeping these records in 2017. Of course, the measure of success is not just what we are investing, it is the outcomes that we need for South Australians to get those jobs. I can tell you, the most recent data we have is very promising on that front as well.

In 2025, the investment in VET is translating to really strong outcomes. South Australia, in fact, was the only state or territory—the only state or territory—to record an increase in student numbers for the period from January to June this year compared with that same period last year, a 3.8 per cent increase, which took student numbers to 57,645: electrotechnology up a staggering 41.6 per cent, growing by over 1,700 enrolments and construction and plumbing up 6.2 per cent, growing by 350 enrolments.

Let's compare that to other jurisdictions over the same period: New South Wales, down 15 per  cent; Victoria down 4.5 per cent; Queensland down 1.6 per cent; WA down 1.3 per cent; Tasmania down 5.8 per cent; Northern Territory down 0.9 per cent. We were the only state or territory in the nation that managed to grow these numbers. Apprenticeships are growing too. In fact, in the March quarter, the NCVER report for that period showed that we had the largest growth in commencements in apprenticeships and traineeships in Australia, up 5 per cent. Again, I will compare other states and territories: Victoria down 16 per cent; Tasmania down almost 13 per cent; WA down 11 per cent; Queensland down 10 per cent; and ACT down 0.5 per cent. South Australia is doing the heavy lifting here to make sure these amazing projects benefit all South Australians with great jobs.