Question Time

Vocational Education and Training

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (15:24): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment and Higher Education Skills a question regarding skills shortages in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: It was reported in The Advertiser late last year that the Adelaide-based manufacturer Tomco Technologies specialises in the design and manufacture of radio frequency power amplifiers for scientific and commercial uses, MRI machines and radars used in weather prediction and climate change research. The article described how Tomco has bucked recent trends in manufacturing by doubling its workforce over the last year after securing new export contracts from the US, Germany and Russia.

Despite this, however, the company may still be forced to relocate overseas due to a severe shortage of skills coming out of South Australian universities. Tomco's chief executive, Dr Janice Reed, has stated that finding suitably qualified staff in South Australia has been an infuriating process as many electronic engineers and technicians have very little hands on experience, and that this shortage may cause the company to relocate to the US.

My question to the minister is: can the minister advise the chamber what measures the government is taking or considering taking to address the lack of practical skills training provided to electronic engineering students and graduates?

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) (15:25): This is a very similar question to the question that the Hon. Jing Lee asked earlier on today, and it goes to most important matters for this state. I guess the principle that underpins the issues of concern that the honourable member raises today is one of supply and demand and, really, the government's role in relation to that, as I stated earlier, our responsibility—we can't make individuals, force individuals, to study particular courses or force them to take particular training. Our job is to make sure that we try to understand the industry needs in an ongoing way because industry needs evolve and change as some industries take off and others might not.

The technologies are changing very quickly as well, so their skill sets are often evolving and changing quite quickly. So the responsibility of this government is to ensure that we understand what the current needs are and forecast needs and to feed that into our training and education institutions so that they can use that information in planning the courses that they design and the particular, if you like, skill sets or subjects that might be involved in the particular qualification, to ensure that they capture those within their training and education program and to make those places available as part of their business plan.

There is always a challenge when highly unique or specific skill sets are required in small industry sectors. That then does produce particular challenges for us but, as I said, we try to work with the industry and bring together education and training providers to make sure they understand the skill sets and qualifications needed and that they can be provided within the planning of those organisations.