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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-17 Daily Xml
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Adult Community Education

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question about providing learning pathways for all South Australians.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: Foundation skills such as language, literacy and numeracy, and skills such as problem solving and digital literacy, are important underlying issues in assisting people getting entry-level work.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. T.T. NGO: My question to the minister is: can the minister tell the chamber about Adult Community 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) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and his ongoing interest in these important policy areas. According to the ABS, in 2006, 512,000 South Australians between 15 and 74 years of age failed to meet the literacy and numeracy levels required to meet the complex demands of work and life in modern economies.

This government values providing South Australians who have low levels of education and digital literacy with learning gateways. In order to help them participate in learning, training and work, $11.7 million has been committed to the Department of State Development to Adult Community Education between 2010 and 2016.

The Adult Community Education (ACE) program is the community learning gateway which can be accessed by people who wish to improve their foundation skills. These skills, which are also basic and necessary in order to improve employability, include literacy, numeracy, digital literacy and suchlike. It's always an important way in which people are able to then transition into further education, training and work. Over 115,000 people have participated in courses since the program commenced in 2005-06.

ACE providers are not for profit. Most of them are community-based organisations who are funded to deliver accredited and non-accredited foundation skills based on the Certificate I in Education and Skills Development curriculum. In 2015-16, the ACE program funding model comprises:

$1.212 million to be allocated to 32 ACE providers (accredited and non-accredited training) in the form of triennial agreements; and also

$1.157 million released through an annual contestable application process which I announced in February of this year.

As a result of this contestable process, I am pleased to report to the chamber that 41 organisations will receive the annual funding of $1.157 million which will be used to deliver an estimated 85,578 training hours to 2,113 participants who will be involved in both accredited and non-accredited training.

The benefit to employers of lifting foundation skills is significant. As little as 1 per cent improvement in adult literacy levels can lead to a 2.5 per cent improvement in productivity, and that's from the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment National Foundation Skills Strategy for Adults.

ACE forms an important part of the state government's new WorkReady policy and builds engagement and strong foundations which support training and jobs at the local level and connects people to training and supports that are best suited to their own particular individual needs.

The Department of State Development is working with Community Centres SA to increase the delivery of ACE courses in regional South Australia and build provider capacity. There is an SDS website where people can find more information in relation to ACE courses.

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