Youth Learning Opportunities

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (14:39): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question regarding young people and learning.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: In the 2012 State Strategic Plan, target 54 seeks to increase the proportion of 15 to 24 year olds engaged in full-time school, post-school education, training or employment, or a combination thereof, to 85 per cent by 2020. Referring to the recommendations of the Audit Committee in South Australia's State Strategic Plan Progress Report 2012, it states:

The proportion of South Australians aged 15 to 24 years engaged in learning or earning was 78.6 per cent in June 2003 (the baseline year). A similar level was recorded in June 2012 (78.4%) leading the Audit Committee to rate progress as 'steady or no movement'.

The Audit Committee states that target 54 is unlikely to be achieved based on the stable trend and requires a 6 per cent increase of 15 to 24 year olds in full-time education or training to be reached within eight years. Will the minister provide an explanation why it is unlikely that the existing strategies of her department will fail to meet the State Strategic Plan target 54 to increase the proportion of 15 to 24 year olds engaged in full-time school, post-school education and training or employment, or a combination thereof, to 85 per cent by 2020?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:40): One of our Strategic Plan targets, target 54, learning or earning, as the honourable member points out, aspires to increase the proportion of 15 to 24 year olds engaged full time in school, post-school education and training or employment, or a combination of that, to 85 per cent by 2020.

This is an area that we have not progressed as well as we could have. Many of these Strategic Plan targets have a strong aspirational level in them. We stretched ourselves when setting these targets. We did not just establish targets that we knew we could meet. We pushed ourselves and there were a number of areas where there were, as I said, aspirational elements.

We believe as a government that, just because we were aspiring in many of these areas, that was not reason to just give up and set the bar lower. I will just remind honourable members who are sniggering away opposite me that they failed to set any targets at all to make their government openly transparent and accountable in any way whatsoever, so they can snigger away all they like.

We have achieved a great deal in our training and VET sectors. We have reached our 100,000 training positions three years ahead of time. We have gone from a VET sector that was one of the most cost-inefficient in the nation to now being assessed to be the most cost-efficient in the nation. There are many achievements in that space that this government is very proud of.

In relation to the specific target 54, earning or learning, amongst the actions that we have taken to help address the slow progress in this area are: Skills for All, which aims to address that trend by attempting to engage more 15 to 24 year olds in school, post-school education and training, and employment; an initiative such as our training guarantee for SACE students; the Innovative Community Action Networks (ICAN); the Better Pathways Pilot; and Learner Support Services. These are just some examples of programs that are designed to help improve participation and retention, including engaging disadvantaged students and students with complex needs.