WorkReady

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills in relation to WorkReady.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Under its new WorkReady initiative, I understand the government has designated 530 places on the funded training list as TAFE only with no conditions attached. In contrast, private registered training organisations have TGSS (Training Guarantee for SACE Students) only conditions imposed. I understand this means that a private RTO in relation to those courses will only be able to offer training to enrolled high school students. My questions to the minister are:

1. With whom did the government consult to ascertain that high schools are the best place to train, for example, future aged-care workers?

2. Why are the TGSS conditions placed on RTOs for more than six times as many of the courses that appear on the funded training list as those offered through TAFE SA?

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) (14:28): I have to say that I do not really understand the latter part of your question, but that is okay. I will take that on notice and bring back a response.

In relation to the subsidised training places, as members are well aware, we have come from a significant high or record funding over the last couple of years under Skills for All where significant additional funds were made available to achieve our 100,000 additional training places. We achieved that ahead of time and we expended all of those funds.

For this financial year we are subsidising 5,000 new training places. There are also 36 per cent of current training places currently in the pipeline, which is just under 40 per cent of the budget. Around $100 million is going to provide subsidised funding for those people already enrolled in the system. We said that, once they were enrolled, we would honour those training commitments and continue to subsidise at the rate we did when those people enrolled. There are a considerable number of contestable positions, but they are in the pipeline. There are 5,000 new places, and 2,000 of those went on the jobs first STL list—3,000 to trades and some of those to TGSS.

In terms of the TGSS, we conducted a significant industry consultation to look at the subsidised training list. That took place over a number of months and was quite extensive. We received considerable input from the industry and used that information to help us streamline that subsidised training list, and I think that went from about 900 down to 500, or something like that, and we are continuing to work on that. We are continuing to tweak that too; we have found that we have needed to add some in and take some out. We will continue to work with the industry to refine that.

It was during that stage that we also received feedback around the TGSS, so industry gave us some feedback, but in particular DECS gave us feedback around the TGSS list, and we will continue to monitor that. Obviously the link with the connection of VET training with our SACE sector is a really incredibly important training pathway for many students. It offers an alternative to those who may not seek to pursue further education through higher education means. It is a wonderful way of ensuring that not only these young people successfully complete their SACE, because these training subjects are accredited as part of their SACE, but those units are also credited for future VET training opportunities.

So, it is a wonderful training pathway for many young people and it is found to be extremely successful. We have valued the feedback we have received from DECS about which places are popular and are the sorts of places young people are looking for. We continue to monitor that and we will continue to develop and evolve those places over time as trends often change. In relation to that second part of the question, I will take that on notice and bring back a response.