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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-17 Daily Xml
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Apprenticeships and Traineeships

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): My question is for the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Will the Malinauskas Labor government deliver an increase to commencements of apprentices and traineeships during this term compared with the last full year of the Liberal government?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:45): Of course, commencements are important in terms of what goes in the front end. I don't disagree with the member for Morialta there; we need to increase the number of South Australians in training. But what we know is that nationally we have an incredibly inefficient training and skills system. If you look at all forms of training and skills, whether it's a traineeship or an apprenticeship or other forms of training that Australians might be accessing, I think it is actually just below 50 per cent. So only around one in two people who actually start training actually finish it.

Of course, that is a bad result for the student, the trainee or the apprentice; it is a bad result for prospective employers, who are desperately crying out for more skilled workers; and it's also a really bad result for taxpayers, including the Australian taxpayers, because that is ultimately taxpayer money that is going towards offering the subsidy on that course.

We know that, although having more people come in and commence a course is certainly important, what we need to focus on to make our system more efficient and actually make sure we get better bang for buck for the South Australian and Australian taxpayers is a serious bit of work on completions. In South Australia, we have put our hand up to lead that piece of work, and we have started that process. I reported back to skills ministers recently, in Hobart, around the work that we had done there, and I am pleased to see that, in some of the most recent data that we have, we have a 4.8 per cent increase in completions, which I think is an important thing.

We know we need to do more in terms of the support that we wrap around young people in training, particularly. I think that in days gone by government viewed its role as one of providing the subsidy and then stepping away, but I think we know that there is a role for government to play beyond that now in terms of some of the mental health and wellbeing supports. All our employers, particularly those with apprentices, tell us they need to get someone through from the commencement to the completion. That is what we are up for as well, and that's why I suggested that South Australia be the state to lead that piece of completion work, which we are now doing.

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