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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-25 Daily Xml
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TRAINING PROVIDERS

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:24): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education. What opportunities is the government pursuing in building links with international training providers?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:24): I thank the member for the question and the lack of elaboration. Last week, Adrian Marron, Executive Director of TAFE SA Adelaide North, represented me in China and signed an agreement with the Chinese Adult Education Association. This is an arm of the Chinese national government. The purpose of this agreement, in its broadest sense, is for South Australia to participate in the introduction of a national vocational education and training system in China. This system will focus on quality and will be implemented consistently throughout China.

This agreement will institute cooperative arrangements between South Australian TAFE and VET organisations and educational organisations throughout China. The South Australian system was selected after other international systems had been considered. I am informed that Germany was short-listed along with South Australia, so it is a great achievement for the South Australian TAFE/VET system.

The intent is that the VET model, exemplified by TAFE SA, is to become the recognised standard for vocational training throughout China. This agreement offers significant opportunities for both China and South Australia. For China, it will involve a consistent approach to vocational education that is built on such a strong foundation, and that foundation is the South Australian system. It involves industry as a significant contributor and will ensure that graduates will be work ready and will have educational qualifications leading to formal pathways to university study both within China and internationally.

South Australia will also benefit from this venture. By helping China to build a new vocational education and training system based on South Australia's highly successful system, we will have the opportunity to market TAFE SA and other South Australian educational propositions as high quality providers of education and training throughout China. Additionally, it is projected that 30 per cent of students who complete training under the new system will travel overseas to complete university studies, and we will strive to make South Australia the obvious higher education destination for these students. This will give us the opportunity to increase our state's market share of international students even further. On this score we are doing extremely well, but there is significant latitude for us to increase our market share.

At the heart of this agreement are the collective benefits that both our countries will experience through working together and sharing new research and innovation. This will include new ways of addressing the skill acquisition and development challenges that both countries face in turbulent economic times.

One example is the Sino-Australian Adult Education Forum, a biannual exchange program between Australia and China—and, again, South Australia was very much at the fore in establishing this forum. The first of these will commence in China in May this year, where we will share our ideas on education and encourage the continuous development of the vocational education and training systems in both countries.

I cannot overstate the potential of the agreement signed in Beijing by the South Australian government last week. Follow-up work will be done in late May and, once the bedrock of the agreement is finally established, the hard work of establishing what could be a significant South Australian educational presence in China will begin.

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