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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-26 Daily Xml
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Findon Technical College

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. How many students have enrolled in the technical college at Findon High School for 2024, and are any of those students currently enrolled at Findon High School this year?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (15:05): I am very pleased to get the opportunity to talk about our technical colleges. Perhaps I could remind members of the house a little bit about the five that we are building, and then I'm very happy to answer the member for Morialta's question about the number of enrolments specifically at the Findon site because I have received some positive news about that just in the last 24 hours.

We are building five tech colleges: Mount Gambier and Port Augusta are the two regional offerings, The Heights School in the north-eastern suburbs, Tonsley Innovation Precinct and, of course, the one to which the member for Morialta refers at Findon, which will be the first to open, in the member for Cheltenham's seat. He has been there on many occasions and is very proud of it, I know, as has the Premier. That will open in January 2024 for the school year there.

The capacity of Findon Technical College, separate to Findon secondary school itself, in its first year of operation—keeping in mind that these tech colleges are for years 10 to 12 students, but in the first year we will only be having years 10 and 11 students which, of course, makes sense, and the year after it will be full with years 10, 11 and 12. The capacity for the first year is 120, and as of yesterday we have 80 enrolments at Findon, which is a very considerable jump in enrolments since it was last criticised by some opposite.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: You were supposed to have 120 by August.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: I can reassure both the member for Morialta—who no doubt will be very pleased to receive this news—and other members of this place that we are now very confident that the technical college will be full on its first day of operation in January next year, which will mean 120 students will be there. I think that would be a remarkable achievement in many respects.

This is a new thing. We haven't really been building new bricks-and-mortar technical colleges like this in South Australia, or indeed around Australia, for a very long time. We know the demand is there, and we have seen a huge jump in enrolments just over the last few weeks, now being at 80, and we are looking forward to having a full Findon Technical College for the start of the 2024 school year.

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