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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-19 Daily Xml
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Apprenticeships

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (15:55): I rise today to talk about the concerning drop in apprenticeship and traineeship numbers in South Australia, despite the Marshall Liberal government claiming to be spending millions of dollars through Skilling South Australia. Prior to the last state election, the Marshall Liberal government claimed they would 'make apprenticeships and traineeships a central plank in our jobs policy'.

Upon being elected to government, the Marshall Liberal government signed a $202 million deal with the federal government for the creation of an additional 20,800 new apprenticeships in South Australia. For the last 12 months, minister Pisoni has been making his way around the state telling people that he knows best as he is a former apprentice himself, and that he is going to deliver the extra 20,800 new commencements.

However, the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research has shown a decline in apprenticeship commencements and a rise in cancellations and withdrawals, despite the Marshall Liberal government's $202 million partnership with the federal government. Remarkably, minister Pisoni came out and disputed the figures from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research and said that his department had determined that 10,000 new commencements had been created.

Surely the minister and his department would not be able to keep a straight face when claiming 10,000 new commencements had been created. There is certainly a lot more work needing to be done by minister Pisoni to deliver anything like that. A good start would have been to have the Marshall Liberal government agree on apprenticeship numbers within its own ranks in South Australia.

For example, in February last year the then opposition leader and now Premier stated in a media release that there were 15,700 apprenticeships currently in the South Australian workforce. Then, just a few months later, when the Marshall Liberal government took office, minister Pisoni stated in a media release that in fact 1,000 fewer apprentices—14,725—were currently working in the South Australian workforce. Minister Pisoni and the Premier, in the space of a few short months, were disputing themselves what the apprenticeship figures were. So it came as no surprise when last week minister Pisoni plucked the 10,000 new commencement figures out of thin air and claimed that that figure is the correct one.

When minister Pisoni last year quoted the figures of 14,725 apprentices in training in South Australia, it is very interesting to look at from what source he was quoting: the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research, the same body that released data last week that states that, since the Marshall Liberal government took office, commencements of new apprenticeships are down, cancellations and withdrawals are up, completion of apprenticeships are down and the number of apprentices currently in training is down.

It is no wonder that, every time the opposition has asked minister Pisoni what are the government's targets in relation to how many new apprenticeships they will create each year, as opposed to over the four years, how much will be spent each year under the Skilling South Australia partnership and what will happen to the funding if these targets are not met, my office gets nothing back but spin. Minister Pisoni really needs to come clean about how he will actually deliver on these targets, especially now, given that the independent National Centre for Vocational Education Research has come out and provided data saying that what minister Pisoni is doing so far is not working.

We saw large cuts in last year's budget to programs that assist workers gaining retraining and assisting them in transitioning across to other jobs in the workforce, programs such as career services, the retrenched workers program and the Jobs First employment programs. But every time minister Pisoni was called out on the cuts to these programs, his response was, 'Skilling South Australia will assist workers who have previously accessed these programs.' However, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is simply not the case. It is time that Mr Pisoni put his hands on the wheel and started delivering on what the Marshall Liberal government described as its central plans in its jobs policy.

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