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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-04 Daily Xml
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Regional Employment

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question about regional job opportunities.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Regional South Australian businesses have expressed their concerns to me and to other members on this side of the house in relation to the loss of job opportunities for young people living in regional South Australia as a result of the government's funding reforms to private RTOs.

Pringles Ag and Crouch Rural, a medium-sized agricultural machinery business, advised that the government's decision will result in less employment and training of young people in the sector. South Australia's regional unemployment is already a major concern, with the regional unemployment rate reaching a staggering 21.8 per cent, the highest rate in 14 years.

Pringles stated that it is important for them to enrol their diesel mechanic apprentices with VTech, a private provider, as Pringles confirmed that they are not satisfied with the quality of training provided by TAFE, along with the travelling times for apprentices going to training and the lack of organisation at TAFE.

These concerns are mirrored by Caroline Graham, Manager at Regional Skills Training, who is here today and who noted that the changes are going to remove private providers from the delivery of training to the kids at school, meaning that there are going to be about 56 schools which will not be able to easily access training within agriculture, horticulture and mechanics, critical skills for country South Australia. My questions to the minister are:

1. Regional businesses have clearly outlined to the government that they are unhappy with the services provided by TAFE for their apprentices. What strategies will the minister introduce to ensure TAFE is reaching its KPIs and delivering real outcomes?

2. Can the minister outline what consultation meetings she has had with regional training providers to assess the impact on regional businesses?

3. With the funding cuts influencing the training within regional schools, how does the minister intend to address the high youth unemployment rate in the regions?

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) (14:34): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions. Both DSD and myself continue to meet with private providers and, for that matter, TAFE as well, on these matters. I have already gone into quite a lot of detail about that ongoing dialogue and what the purpose of that dialogue is, so that is how I intend to continue to engage with them.

I have already indicated that TAFE has indicated that it does have the capacity to fulfil the training activity identified in the subsidised training list for 2015-16, and I am certainly continuing to encourage TAFE to engage with employers to ensure that they reflect industry needs and are able to deliver training that is well fitted and well suited to achieving real job outcomes.

In terms of ongoing youth employment or employment overall, the objective of WorkReady is to ensure that very precious public money, taxpayers' money, is not necessarily spent on providing jobs for training providers but, rather, is focused on delivering training outcomes that equip particularly our young people and young people in regions, for real jobs. We make no apology about that; that is what our purpose is, and that is what WorkReady will do.

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