Noarlunga TAFE

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:11): I was actually going to ask the Minister for Water and Environment a question, but given that he is not here, I would like to ask the Leader of Government a question regarding TAFE at Noarlunga. I seek leave to make a brief explanation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Until about 2002 to 2004, TAFE at Noarlunga was almost iconic in the provision of advanced education services that they offered the students of the south. Unfortunately, I am advised by people who both use the college and have worked in the college that the college is virtually only a shadow of what it was back then when this government first came into office. One of the important areas for the south is agriculture, value-added food, tourism and hospitality, and there was a significant amount of money spent on the John Reynell Training Restaurant. My questions to the minister are:

1. How many courses are now provided at the John Reynell Training Restaurant?

2. Is the John Reynell Training Restaurant still utilised and available to the public?

3. Does the government have any plans, if it has not already done so, to effectively cut to zero the opportunities that that facility has been providing for hospitality?

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) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, and indeed, our TAFE Noarlunga campus is a very important campus and has a tremendous reputation. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit there just recently. As members are well aware and I have said many times in this place, TAFE SA is a statutory authority and operational matters such as decisions about staffing, training and individual courses are made by the TAFE board independent of government. However, TAFE has advised me—I know there have been lots of rumours about Noarlunga campus closing—that they have no plans to close the TAFE Noarlunga campus. In fact, I understand that in 2015 more than 60 lecturing staff will teach approximately 125 courses from that campus.

I have also been advised that programs like automotive, hospitality and cookery, and women's education are growing. There are vacancies occurring in aged care, hair and beauty, business, information technology, tourism and events. Those vacancies are progressively filling. I have been advised that TAFE SA's creative industries and arts program will be reviewed in 2013 and, based on the low demand at Noarlunga, it was decided that music, graphic design and printing would no longer be offered from that campus and would be consolidated elsewhere in the TAFE SA network. I have also been advised that all 51 students enrolled at the time the decision was made have now completed their studies.

As I have said, TAFE SA are independent and they make these decisions based on a wide range of factors, including demand. They seek to continue to improve efficiencies, respond to changes in demand and obviously remain a contemporary vocational education and training provider into the future. That means that the services they offer and the way they do their work are forever changing. We know that developments in information technology have significantly changed the face of teaching. We have become less and less reliant on physical structures and face-to-face teaching, and the internet, video conferencing, webinars and those sorts of IT-reliant communication exchanges have increased. So TAFE and other training providers need to keep changing the way and shape that they do business.