FEDERAL BUDGET FAILS TO DELIVER ON TRAINING

The Federal Government’s scatter-gun approach to solving the country’s skills crisis will fail to deliver any long-term results, Education and Training Minister Rod Welford said.

“While the Commonwealth is patting itself on the back over its commitment to the education and training sectors, they have wasted this opportunity to provide a strong foundation for these sectors,” Mr Welford said.

“At a time when the nation is in the grip of one of the greatest skills shortages, not one cent has been directly given to our TAFEs which provide the backbone of skills training.

“Instead, the Federal Government is wasting money on building more of its ill-fated Australian Technical Colleges, which have had abysmal enrolments nationally since they commenced.

“These colleges won’t succeed because they are a duplication of the services already provided by our government and non-government schools in vocational education and training.

“Queensland is delivering more traineeships and apprenticeships than the rest of the country combined – we have the runs on the board and we know what works.

“What we need is investment in our core system of TAFE which provides training for secondary and post-secondary students.

“Our $1 billion Queensland Skills Plan is reforming the state’s vocational education and training system to ensure it meeds the needs of individuals, industry and the global market place.

“It would have been good to see the Federal Government look at the bigger picture and make a similar commitment rather than tossing around a few paltry morsels that will never solve our skills crisis in the longer term.”

Media contact: Marnie Stitz on 3237 1000 or 0419 734 985