House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-12 Daily Xml

Contents

SKILLS FOR ALL

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills. Why are nationally accredited training organisations that have been rejected for Skills for All funding being told that they must wait three months before reapplying, and why has the minister waived this three-month period only in certain cases?

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland—Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:39): Very simply, there have been 300 applications to be a Skills for All provider in the last few months. It obviously takes time to work our way and assess our way through all of those providers. If someone is rejected, they have not met the criteria. If someone has not met the criteria, then we need to just make sure we get through the remaining applications as quickly as possible and then get back to those that were rejected and work with them. There was one instance where I waived that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. T.R. KENYON: —the requirement for that provider because they had been operating as a provider in South Australia for 16 years. If that is not the right amount of time, I will get back to the house on that but, from memory, it is about 16 years—a substantial amount of time—in South Australia. They were well known. I suspect they relied in their—well, I will not make suppositions about what they expected but they are known to us. I am happy to work with them and I will waive the three months for them, but I need time or the department needs time to get through the other applications and then we will get back onto those that were rejected.