Youth Training and Education

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills. Can the minister please advise the chamber what the government is doing to assist some of our disadvantaged youth into training or education?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:50): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. We on this side of the chamber know full well that undertaking training very much increases a person's chance of finding employment. We also understand how important a school education is to a person's future opportunities.

When those opposite were in power, almost one in three young people did not stay on to their final years in school. Under this Labor government, we now have one of the best school retention rates in the nation. More young people are now enrolled in year 12 than at any other time in the state's history. That is why we have invested in programs such as ICAN, the Innovative Community Action Network. ICAN is a joint initiative between the Department of State Development and the Department of Education and Child Development. The program is designed to identify highly disadvantaged school students, to support them to keep engaged with education and/or training. The program identifies students who are at risk or who have strayed from the pathway of completing SACE.

Students may disengage with their schooling for a variety of reasons, including social, economic and family reasons. For some, their own health, the health of other family members or caring responsibilities may make participation extremely difficult. The ICAN program provides intensive individual case-management support throughout the year, if necessary, to address the issues that are barriers to their participation in learning.

The training program supports may include funding for training qualifications in certificate III level and above. A recent analysis of training outcomes of the ICAN pathway program from July 2012 to June 2014 has shown that the qualification completion rate of 44 per cent at the aggregate level is above the national VET average of 37 per cent for all students and over twice the average completion rate for students identified as disadvantaged, which is less than 20 per cent.

What is also pleasing is that at the disaggregate level students show an increasing rate of qualification completion as time progresses. For example, students commencing in semester 2 of 2012 had a completion rate of 49 per cent in November 2013, rising to 65 per cent in July 2014 as continuing students completed their qualification. This data demonstrates that the program is successfully retaining highly disadvantaged students in the education and training system and supporting their completion of accredited training and qualifications.

The support for the students also includes funding of independent career development sessions, with some 570 students between July 2012 and July 2014 accessing this invaluable advice. These young people and the staff and services that support them are living proof of the great things that can be achieved when partnerships are formed and policies are developed that value equity participation. These are core Labor values.