Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to make a contribution on one of my favourite topics, which is the electorate of Grey and the effect of the Trade Training Centres national framework, which is providing some significant funding for the electorate. By way of a snapshot, the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program is providing $2.5 billion over 10 years from 2008. Just four years into the program, over 1,070 schools have benefited from around $1.2 billion of funding.

The rollout of the TTC infrastructure has progressed on or ahead of projections and, as at 7 September, 218 Trade Training Centres had already been built, benefiting over 600 schools; 63 are preparing to commence construction, benefiting a further 125 schools; 64 are under construction, benefiting over 240 further schools; and 31 have in-principle funding approval, which will benefit another 110 schools.

This is an important part of the Labor government strategy to encourage young people to complete year 12. Secondary schools with students enrolled in years 9 and above can seek funding to establish new trade training facilities or upgrade existing facilities. By the schools providing industry standard facilities in partnership with local employers, students are gaining skills relevant to the workplace, helping them on the pathway to work and further training.

Importantly, this will boost productivity, give students more options and give them, very importantly, the opportunity to seek rewarding careers. We are improving facilities and providing more opportunities in further education and training, delivering high-quality vocational training opportunities. This is central to our investment in Australian kids and giving them a chance to learn trade skills firsthand. It is abundantly clear that not all of our young people go on to university, and it is particularly important to have these opportunities to identify early in their career path or early in their school path those who want to progress into trades.

The government is seeking to support an achievement rate of 90 per cent of year 12 or equivalent by 2015, and this is a really significant investment in achieving that target. Since 2008 there have been four rounds of funding so far, and as of round 4 there have been some changes that have been made to process the funding approval. Individual project proposals must now form part of a sectoral plan prepared by each education authority for approval by the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth.

New processes will see the Trade Training Centres being rolled out in a more strategic way. We will see projects prioritised by various factors, including relative socioeconomic disadvantage and program objectives and priorities. All eligible schools are on the indicative priority list, and all schools can ask their education authority where exactly they are on that list.

This Labor government is taking the necessary steps to address an extremely important issue, which is skill shortage in this country. For South Australia, this has meant that after the initial round 4 announcement 48 projects over 140 schools have been approved for funding. The total funding of these projects is approximately $135.6 million. From the data collected to May 2012, 26 of the Trade Training Centres are operational. In the latest round, round 4, there are eight projects, covering 15 schools, at a funding of around $16.25 million.

A significant number of Trade Training Centres have been announced for and are operational, most importantly, in regional Australia—in the remote and very remote areas. I have had the honour of going to Eudunda and Cummins, both vibrant rural communities in the electorate of Grey. I am looking forward to the opportunity of going to the APY lands in November of this year. It is very, very clear that this Labor government initiative is putting in place great vocational opportunities for our kids in regional and rural Australia. Twenty-nine schools have been identified in the remote service delivery priority communities and 18 of them have received funding from this program. To ensure that the remote service delivery can be funded as quickly as possible, $16.5 million has been quarantined, covering 11 RSD schools not yet funded, at $1.5 million per school, reflecting their higher-than-average cost structures.

Sadly, before the last election the opposition promised to cut over $1.1 billion from the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program, robbing secondary students in approximately 1,000 secondary schools of the opportunity to find better pathways to becoming the next generation of electricians, brickies, hairdressers, chefs, carpenters and all those good tradespeople who are the backbone of the Australian community.

It was my great pleasure to go to Eudunda Area School, one of two cluster schools which had submitted an application, along with the lead school, Nurioopta High School, in round 4 of the program. I was up there to do the Building the Education Revolution stuff—the new library, the new classrooms and the new electronic whiteboards that are allowing science classes to be delivered across a range of schools in that area, with one science teacher and four kids in each school, delivering remarkable outcomes. They were extremely excited to have gained the funding to refurbish, upgrade and replace their trade training centre. They were looking forward to being able to give the kids who were not going on to uni, those kids who wanted to get into trades, that leg-up and that bit of training that was going to help them to realise their full potential by delivering qualifications in the rural, agriculture and automotive sectors. Eudunda is not that far from the automotive plant at Elizabeth. In the food processing sector: the Barossa Valley is around the corner, and wine and food are part of the heritage of that area. In the construction sector: you can get a $10,000 grant in South Australia if you want to build a house out in the Gawler sub-belt. There is building and construction activity. In electrotechnology engineering: there is a lot of that going on around Edinburgh in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, and it has given country kids a chance to get a leg-up and training in a vocational trade and to make something of their lives.

Addressing these skills shortages is something that the Labor government is extremely proud of, and I am ecstatic about being able to go along and witness the enthusiasm that the school communities have for these types of endeavours.

Way over at Cummins, on the Eyre Peninsula, there is a BER project—a $2.15 million library, shade structure and refurbishments. Seventy people from the local community came out, everybody had a cup of tea and a lamington, and they said: 'Thank you very much. No-one cares about Cummins but you have done something really good here.' The person who spoke said, 'This is beyond politics; we are really appreciative of the investment in our community.' There was another interesting sideline to that visit. I actually opened the refurbished agricultural trade centre. The kids there are growing their own crops, they are managing their own pesticides to grow wheat, barley and whatever it is that they require, for their aquaculture and their other endeavours. One of the things that I had not seen before, but I am sure that those in the National Party on the other side who know a bit about it, was a led steer competition. There you had year 9, 10 and 11 kids actually growing cattle—actually growing the wheat, the barley, the feed—putting the cattle into a feedlot situation and getting them from a fairly low weight to 600 kilos. No doubt this week they will take them down to the Adelaide show, they will get them judged on the hoof. Then, I am told, they are also judged on the hook. That might not please everybody, but as a meat eater it certainly does not displease me. The proceeds for those things go fifty-fifty back to the school and fifty-fifty back to the provider of the livestock. It was really great to see.