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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-21 Daily Xml
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CIVIL TRAIN SA

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:45): I rise today to speak about Civil Train SA and its civil training facility at the Playford Alive Works site. Last month I was invited to the Civil Contractors Federation to visit the Playford Alive site and to witness the important work that is carried out by Civil Train SA. Civil Train SA is the training arm of the Civil Contractors Federation and is a not-for-profit registered training organisation. Civil Train SA is the largest provider of civil construction training in South Australia and provides training and assessments to a national standard.

Following an analysis of skill requirements for South Australia, the Civil Contractors Federation identified a shortage of trained and accredited workers in the civil construction industry. In order to address this, Civil Train SA secured funding to deliver additional training and educational opportunities for South Australians. This funding was used to undertake a Green Star refurbishment of the CCF head office and training facilities at Thebarton, introduce a mobile training unit and purchase earthmoving simulators.

The mobile training unit will be deployed to regional South Australia to encourage a greater number of students from these areas to undertake training in civil construction and to provide those students with the same training opportunities as their city counterparts. An increase in skilled operators in these areas will also lead to greater employment opportunities.

The introduction of earthmoving simulators is a significant shift from traditional training methods but it is predicted that this will increase the number of students from an average of 400 to 1,300 in the first three years of the project by streamlining the training process.

In 1994 Civil Train SA established a live training site located at Munno Para. This site provides a unique opportunity for on-site training on heavy machinery for both new operators and those needing to renew or update their qualifications. It offers a safe and controlled environment to refine their skills before undertaking assessment, and has an emphasis on occupational health and safety.

During my visit I was able to observe firsthand the training and assessments conducted at the site. I saw participants learning to dig a trench with an excavator and grading a dirt road with a road grader, a job which was completed for the Land Management Corporation. At first glance it may seem that these tasks are not complicated but with machinery often costing in the vicinity of $300,000 it is imperative that operators receive adequate training, to ensure not only that they are capable of operating the machinery but do so in a manner which will not endanger the worksite.

I was afforded the opportunity to drive the grader myself—and was eager to do so considering myself to be proficient in handling farm machinery—but after witnessing the size of the grader on-site, I reconsidered my acceptance of the offer.

This training site forms part of the Playford Alive Works project which allows employment and work experience opportunities for young people in the area. The live, on-site training often involves the building and construction of local infrastructure and buildings. Recently, the Playford Alive project was able to secure 21 per cent of the 250 training places that were offered through the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology's Learn to Earn program, of which Civil Train SA is a participant.

This initiative aims to identify young people who have left school and who are at risk of becoming long-term unemployed, and to engage them in a program which provides them with skills essential for the workplace. The Learn to Earn program allows youths to develop new skills and increase their self-confidence, and opens up employment opportunities. In 2010 Civil Train SA offered an eight-week training program to support 36 young people as part of Learn to Earn and is an excellent example of an operation working proactively to address youth unemployment. I congratulate the Civil Contractors Federation on this initiative.

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