Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 5 November, the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett, announced funding of $219.6 million for 58 new trade training centres. Of that, $4.5 million has been provided to, amongst other projects, set up a trade training centre in my electorate of Oxley. This western corridor trade training centre campus will be located adjacent to Woodcrest College and will offer training courses to students from three local partner schools: Woodcrest College, Forest Lake State High School and Redbank Plains State High School. This is a fabulous partnership between schools to deliver the best outcome for their students. Students will be able to learn traditional trades such as carpentry, landscape gardening, hairdressing and electrical and mechanical trades, just to name a few. They will do this while still at school, as part of their formal education process.

Congratulations must go to these schools and their principals, who have fought hard to secure this funding and create this unique partnership. I also want to congratulate Llew Paulger, the senior project leader, who said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity training-wise for students to make sure there is a smooth flow from high school into skills training, straight into the workforce. We’ve got really tight industry links for the whole program.’ And this is where the success of these trade training centres will deliver great outcomes for young people.

The funding is part of the Gillard government’s $2.5 billion investment in vocational training and education. It means real money, real facilities and real outcomes for young people. The Trade Training Centres in Schools Program has already delivered 35 completed projects; 130 projects are under construction right now, and 64 are in the planning stage. We expect 64 trade training centres to be ready for the 2011 school year—next year. These trade training centres are delivering on the government’s commitment to an education revolution. The Gillard government is delivering record funding to the education sector, but also directly to students and schools, and to parents through tax concessions. That is ensuring that we have a world-class education system in this country, one that comprises all the components of what education should be about.

Trade training centres are a very important part of this government’s plan to address the skills shortage in our economy. A modern education system means delivering students who have choices and pathways to employment and who are not just finishing school with nothing on their horizons. Of course, not every student will go on to university or other forms of higher education, but the old system—of finishing at year 10 or even year 12 and then commencing learning a trade—did not deliver the options and flexibility that students need.

At the new western corridor trade training centre campus, the students will be able to work directly with local industry to create highly skilled, high-end jobs. This really will deliver for my local students and their schools. It is a great initiative and a great partnership. There ought to be more of it right across the country.

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