CQ’s Big Build gets Big Boost with training for 1 million Queenslanders

ATTENTION MEDIA: radio grabs HERE

• New Miles Government plan delivers one million subsidised training places for Queenslanders to access good high paying jobs.
• Plan extends Free TAFE cost of living measure with 70,000 Free TAFE places.
• Central Queensland region predicted to employ almost 139,000 workers by 2025-26–a 11.5% rise from 2021-22.

In the biggest skills and training reform in almost a decade, the Miles Labor Government will fund one million training places for Queenslanders – easing cost-of-living pressures for those who want to train, upskill, reskill, and pursue careers in the state’s priority industries.

The Good Jobs, Great Training: Queensland Skills Strategy 2024 – 2028 will help address local skills and workforce priorities in Central Queensland including in the nursing, retail, mining, and construction sectors with more free and subsidised training for locals.

The strategy extends the Queensland Government’s Free TAFE program, funding up to 70,000 Free TAFE places – including 30,000 new places – to bring down costs for Queenslanders to get into better paid jobs or start a career in high-demand industries.

It will also fund one million publicly subsidised training places in health, social services, hospitality, clean energy, construction and more.

It will build on the success of Labor’s Free TAFE initiative, which has provided free training for more than 4,500 Central Queenslanders since the start of 2023.

Across five focus areas and five years, the strategy sets out to maximise productivity and participation, unlocking billions in annual skills investment – including a $370 million funding uplift to help kickstart the new strategy.

Quotes attributable to Member for Rockhampton Barry O’Rourke MP:

“The new Queensland Skills Strategy is huge for Rocky, with more Free TAFE places allowing locals who have never been able to afford training to gain new skills to enter or re-enter the workforce.

“Free TAFE will provide more opportunities for Central Queenslanders like Breeanne Brereton who studied a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care through Central Queensland University, to access Free TAFE.

“The demand for kindergarten and daycare educators is growing and it’s fantastic we will be able to provide Free TAFE opportunities for people like Breeanne who are eager to meet that demand.

“Hopefully they secure jobs like Breeanne – who has already secured casual employment at Green Leaves Early Learning Centre in Rockhampton.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Regional Development and Manufacturing and Minister for Water and Member for Gladstone Glenn Butcher MP:

“This is what Labor is all about–getting more Queenslanders into good jobs, with better pay, through free and subsidised training.

“This new Queensland Skills Strategy will be huge for the Gladstone region and the locals looking to take full advantage of the good jobs and better pay on offer through our Big Build.

“Thanks to Labor’s Free TAFE, we have young people like Mattia not just accessing cost of living relief but setting themselves up for a big future working and thriving in our proud industrial city.

“This training will be critical to meet demand triggered by the $2 billion investment for Central Queensland in the Big Build, which alone is creating an estimated 5,600 jobs.”

Quotes attributable to Rockhampton Early Childhood Education and Care graduate Breeanne Brereton:

“I choose to pursue my childcare course as it’s something I enjoy doing.

“I’ve always loved young children and watching them grow. I love the aspects of being one of their role models in their young learning lives.

ATTENTION MEDIA: please see click here for a photo of Breeanne.

Quotes attributable to Gladstone Engineering (Fabrication Trade) apprentice Mattia Uusimaki:

“I’m really enjoying making a lot of stuff for the big businesses around Gladstone.

“The apprenticeship has been really rewarding because I’ve worked really hard to get here, so I was really happy when I got my foot in the door.

“I am really excited, especially for the future because my partner is also a boiler maker here in Gladstone, so there’s plenty of opportunities for us in the future."

ATTENTION MEDIA: please see click here for a photo of Mattia.

Quotes attributable to the Minister for Training and Skills Development Lance McCallum:

We want Queenslanders at the front of the line for good local jobs in–this investment will ensure we make the most of this golden decade of opportunity.

“This strategy is not just real cost of living relief now, but a chance at a better life, with better pay and a better job, helping grow our economy right across the state.

“Labor’s Free TAFE has changed lives–people who were facing homelessness, mothers returning to work, and young people who haven’t finished high school–have completed free TAFE courses and come out with good jobs.

“There’s no clearer difference between Labor and the LNP who will jack up course fees and make young Queenslanders pay for their apprenticeships–they’ll have to, because they don’t back the coal royalties that pay for it.

Further information:

• Jobs Queensland data projects the largest employing industries in Central Queensland in 2025-26 will be:
  1. Health Care and Social Assistance
  2. Retail Trade
  3. Construction
  4. Education and Training
  5. Mining
• Higher-level skills are also being sought by employers, with nine out of 10 new jobs requiring post-school qualifications over the 10 years to 2033 according to Jobs and Skills Australia.
• Development of the Good Jobs, Great Training: Queensland Skills Strategy 2024 – 2028 is a key action under the Good people. Good jobs: Queensland Workforce Strategy 2022 – 2032.

For more information and to read the Good Jobs, Great Training: Queensland Skills Strategy 2024 – 2028, visit www.qld.gov.au/SkillsStrategy.

ENDS

Media contact:

Minister McCallum – Andrew Churchill 0472 645 871