SKILLS FOR ALL

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Regional Development a question about Skills for All.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: The state government's Skills for All reform is about ensuring that South Australians have access to world-class skills—skills that our industries are calling out for, leading to more jobs and greater opportunities. Can the Minister for Regional Development outline the state government's initiative to assist people in regions to access vocational education and training?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Consultation on South Australia's Strategic Plan identified that South Australians living in regional areas across the state share many common priorities for the future. Community wellbeing and sustainability are shared goals, as is job creation and building the resilience of communities.

To encourage regions to develop and grow, the state government will invest in regional areas through the Skills for All reforms of the vocational education and training system. From July this year TAFE, along with many of our highly regarded registered training authorities, will receive public funding to provide more vocational education and training courses to regional South Australians.

These reforms acknowledge the needs of regional South Australia and the circumstances in providing vocational education and training across the state. As a consequence, the state government will pay an additional loading on the subsidy to training providers when they deliver training courses in regional South Australia.

This additional payment will be available to TAFE SA and other training providers approved to deliver funded training under Skills for All. Non-TAFE SA providers will be encouraged to provide training services in the regions and benefit from this initiative, as they will be receiving a location loading that was not available previously. As honourable members may be aware, the majority of TAFE campuses are located in regional South Australia and also include a number of sites in the APY lands.

Delivery of services by TAFE SA in many small regional campuses across the state will also be separately funded as a community service under a purchase agreement. This ensures that students in regional areas will have opportunities to access training and recognises the additional costs of delivery in smaller regional communities.

Only training providers that have been approved to be Skills for All training providers will receive government subsidy for delivery of training outcomes for eligible students undertaking training on the Funded Training List. The Skills for All subsidies are paid to Skills for All training providers to pay for the cost of delivery and help reduce the cost of training to South Australian individuals, businesses and industry in a more open and demand driven training market.

Honourable members should be aware that the state's unemployment rate is a low 5.1 per cent, equal to the national unemployment rate. What honourable members may not be aware of is that the unemployment rate in regional South Australia is currently even lower than that of the state average. The state government's Skills for All reforms will provide more training opportunities and greater choice of providers for students both in metropolitan and regional South Australia.

The continuing economic success of regional South Australia is intrinsically linked to the skill levels of business, industry and individuals. The state government's Skills for All reforms will provide a valuable contribution to raising the skills required by our regional economies.