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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-13 Daily Xml
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Skilling South Australia

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:40): I have a question for the Minister for Innovation and Skills. Can the minister please update the house on how our skills programs are creating jobs and strengthening the workforce in MacKillop and Mount Gambier?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (14:40): I thank the member for MacKillop for his interest in skills training in his electorate. It is important to understand that the Marshall Liberal government is creating jobs and supporting South Australians to get the skills and qualifications they need to work in rewarding careers, under our $200 million Skilling South Australia program.

Not only is it a funding commitment but it's a reform commitment and a commitment to jobs in South Australia. We have successfully rolled out projects, bespoke design, right around the state. Gone are the days of the bureaucrat and union-designed, one-size-fits-all programs. These are bespoke design programs. Over 200 different businesses and industries have worked with the government to design programs that suit them to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —support apprentices and trainees in their industries and even individual businesses. It is great to see one such project in a critical growth sector, the aged-care sector, supporting the aged-care workforce in the Limestone Coast. Twenty-five new workers will take up traineeships in the aged-care sector with a partnership led by Career Partners Plus in collaboration with the Boandik Lodge, Mount Gambier; Resthaven, Mount Gambier; Boneham Aged Care, Millicent; and Longridge Village, Naracoorte.

The important thing about this new commitment is that these are paid traineeships. People are actually being paid to learn. I keep telling this story because I was so concerned when I first learnt, being the Minister for Skills, that in a feminised industry—an industry dominated by women—women are expected in that industry to learn in their own time to get their Certificate III in Individual Support and then work for free for six weeks in order to get their on-the-job training. You know what? Sixteen years of Labor and that was the outcome of training in that sector. Of course—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Attorney, you are warned for the first time.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —I also rack my brains, but are there any male-dominated industries that have the same pathway into skills? I couldn't find any at all. A big thank you to Hessel Group (Enhance Training), which will be delivering the training to these new trainees, who will learn and earn while they learn, gaining a qualification in Cert III in Individual Support.

The project is supported through government funding of almost $125,000. It's another example of how the Marshall government has transformed the system and supported paid pathways, particularly in traditional female roles.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright, you have two warnings.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: I will take this opportunity to thank the Morrison government for the Boosting Apprenticeship program because it has enabled us to start changing the culture in industries that haven't used paid pathways previously, with aged care, disability care, being one of them and the ICT sector being another, one of those sectors that hasn't used that paid pathway, where there are now careers being generated in the sector.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright, you are on two warnings.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: We now have a situation in the aged-care sector, the disability sector, where we are lifting the status and we are delivering career pathways. These are no longer just jobs: these are careers. We are seeing many people over the age of 45 making career changes to move into this industry because they want to be there—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —and we are supporting them by paying them to do it. They no longer have to give up their job, go to school in their own time and work for free in order to get their qualification. They are now being paid to do that. Three thousand businesses in South Australia have employed an apprentice or a trainee for the first time under Skilling South Australia. Since the reforms that this government introduced, the extra funding and targeted funding this government introduced, we have seen 3,000—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —additional businesses take on apprentices and trainees.

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright, you are on two warnings and I continue to hear your interjecting and it is causing great frustration.

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