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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-02 Daily Xml
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TAFE SA

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills some questions regarding the up and down life of TAFE and training organisations under her leadership.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Time and time again over the last several years we have seen reductions in TAFE SA at the same time as we have seen TAFE campuses like Noarlunga seeing massive reductions in lecturers and courses. We have also seen increased youth unemployment, particularly in the southern region. Parallel to that, the government over the last few years have been encouraging and supporting regional registered training organisations in the private sector. My questions are:

1. Given the backflip due to the mess that the minister and her department have created with training, skills and employment opportunities in this state, can the minister explain to the house how in the years 2013 and 2014 TAFE SA provided 377 packages to lecturers? According to Treasury and Finance guidelines, none of these people can be re-employed in the public sector for three years and they cannot be employed directly or through a third party.

2. How much money has TAFE spent in the years 2013 and 2014 in paying out targeted and redundancy packages to the most highly experienced and qualified lecturers in TAFE?

3. If the minister is going to expand the courses now available in TAFE, how does she expect to find sufficient lecturers to take up the courses given the massive reduction in lecturers through the reduction in TAFE services and the packages over the 2013-14 years?

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) (15:23): I thank the member for his questions. In answering the question, I would like to remind the chamber that under Skills for All we achieved unprecedented high levels of funding and investment into our training sector, we delivered unprecedented levels of training, we achieved our 100,000 additional training places. We had participation rates in training at the nation's highest, we had completion rates at the nation's highest—unprecedented levels. So, if that is the mess that this government has left, then I am pretty proud of that.

We have achieved that target of 100,000 places and those additional once-off funds have been expended. In line with that, in deep consultation with the industry, we have been able to design a work ready training program which focuses precious public money, taxpayers' money—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Public money that goes into subsidising training is focused on real job outcomes, far more focused and targeted on employment opportunities, particularly employment opportunities in emerging industries. We have also put in train systems to improve even further on our completion rates. That is the objective of WorkReady. As I have already outlined in this place, it is to be phased in over the next four years, and at the end of those four years we will have an extremely efficient and sustainable training sector where the TAFE commercial training activity will be dollar-for-dollar parity with the private sector.

In terms of TAFE reform, as I have indicated we have, throughout 2015-16, indicated to TAFE that we are supporting TAFE through a transition process to enable it to design more innovative and creative training models and to be more flexible and adaptable in a competitive marketplace. In terms of the amount of money spent on TVSPs, again, they are detailed questions of an administrative nature and I encourage the honourable member to direct those questions directly to TAFE.

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