Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The focus of this government from the beginning has been on education and skills training. We have made massive investments in that agenda to try to give young Australians the best opportunity to get good jobs. This year's budget was no different in that we put extra resources into assisting 160,000 early school-leavers with the foundation skills they need to succeed. Through Skills Connect, the government are investing $29 million to work with industry to get modern approaches to competency based apprenticeships. There are a whole range of measures directed at giving our young people the opportunity to participate in the economy and take up the skilled jobs that have been made available. I would like to congratulate the best of those: the Skillaroos, who competed at the Skills Olympics in London recently. They had fantastic results and did Australia proud. I commend them for their efforts in representing our country and displaying the skills of our young people to the world.