Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I will happily check the brief that Senator Cameron is referring to as to what Senator Day at some stage may have requested in relation to proposals. I know full well, and Senator Cameron knows full well, that ultimately a grant was awarded in accordance with the guidelines that were established for the innovative apprenticeship pilot program. A grant was awarded that was negotiated along terms that set milestone payments for the North East Vocational College to deliver this innovative apprenticeship pilot.

The reason the government is having a look at innovative models for apprenticeship delivery and wants to support growth in our apprenticeship system is to deal with the collapse in apprenticeship commencement numbers that occurred shortly before we came to office. To enlighten the Senate, in the year to the end of June 2012 there were 376,000 commencements of apprenticeships in Australia. But in the year to June 2013 that had dropped to 233,000—a decline of 38 per cent in apprenticeship numbers.