Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to inform the House today of my recent visit to the Swinburne TAFE campus in Croydon in my electorate to talk about the Foundation Skills Package, a $120 million Rudd government investment. The package itself was designed to help over 140,000 Australians over the next four years. Part of that package, the Language, Literacy and Numeracy program, was designed to help 70,000 workers through to 2014. The training measures funded under this package build on existing Australian government foundation skills programs, namely the Workplace English, Language and Literacy program and, as I said, the Language, Literacy and Numeracy program. The LLNP provides up to 800 hours of free accredited language, literacy and numeracy training for eligible job seekers whose skills are below the level considered necessary to secure sustainable employment or pursue further education and training. This program expands the number of places available.

When I went to Swinburne in late May, I met with students who were taking training and actually upskilling themselves. I met people like Melville Pereira, who was studying English at Swinburne. He said the adult literacy classes allowed people to retrain for a different occupation. They have made him proficient to operate a computer and helped him to brush up on his English and maths. They have also given him an interest in pursuing further education. I also met Jason Pearce, an English and maths student, who said prior to taking on the course he lacked self-confidence and motivation. That was two years ago, and he has moved ahead in leaps and bounds. He did not believe in his spelling and maths before he started the course and had no idea of what he wanted to do in terms of a working life. Leaving school at year 10 meant that he found the work that he did both hard and stressful. The teachers and assistants, as Jason said, had done such a good job spending a lot of their time helping him and pushing him to believe in himself. As I said, they had given him a goal in life.

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I also met Kevin Swift, who has been studying at Swinburne for 18 months. He left school in 1983 and had only done a few short courses, but he has now come back and is studying English, computer and maths programs to help him decide if he is capable of further education or of taking on an apprenticeship to become, for example, an electrician. I told him that was a great career choice which would see him well for many years to come were he to choose it. He is also looking at other career options to see where he can go. This is a great program. It is helping people locally in my electorate of Deakin and in other electorates right across Australia.

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