Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted that among the first inquiries I have participated in as a member of parliament has been one into the perceptions and status of vocational education and training. After detailed consultation and consideration of the stakeholder input, I am pleased that the inquiry's report, accurately titled Shared vision, equal pathways,is now being tabled. This report reconfirms the Labor government's commitment to strengthening and transforming our vocational education and training sector, VET, after a decade of neglect by those opposite.

At the outset, I would like to commend the chair, the member for Bendigo, for her exceptional work in spearheading this inquiry. This inquiry received a hundred submissions from a diverse range of stakeholders, unions, VET providers, universities, business groups and student organisations. Over the course of the inquiry, the committee conducted 15 hearings, including one at Cranbourne Secondary College, in my electorate. I am thankful to the students of Cranbourne Secondary College for presenting their firsthand reflections to the committee.

Over one in every four in Holt are under the age of 14—the highest in the country. As these students graduate high school over the next decade, they will make one of the biggest decisions of their lives: 'What do I do after school?' While university is no doubt a great career path for some, for others, the hands-on learning experience from VET is more suitable. Attending VET institutions like William Angliss Institute and Box Hill Institute of TAFE provided me a pathway to acquire skills that were workforce ready. I want to make sure that other students in my electorate and across Australia understand this, and this inquiry will go a long way in ensuring that.

This report lays out 34 practical recommendations for achieving this goal. While each of them deserves a mention, in the interest of time, I want to draw the chamber's attention to recommendations 10 and 18. Recommendation 10 emphasises the need for the Australian government and state and territory governments to work together to improve the quality and consistency of VET in secondary schools. The integration of TAFE in secondary schools is one of the great education reforms of this country. Everyone learns differently, and not every student can sit through lectures in a classroom all day. This system shows students early on the possibilities of TAFE and allows them to get a head start on achieving a tertiary qualification.

I also welcome recommendation 18, which focuses on addressing systematic barriers which hinder female participation in TAFE, particularly in male dominated industries. Only 12 per cent of construction workers are women, making it a mostly male dominated sector in Australia. Often women can feel uncomfortable in these highly male dominated spaces, leading to high early dropout rates. By tackling workforce discrimination and gender based violence and by introducing additional apprenticeship pathways for women, we can go a long way in addressing this gender imbalance.

I am honoured to commend this report in the chamber and thank everyone involved—the committee members, the secretariat and stakeholders—for their immense contribution to this inquiry. I recommend this report to the House.

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