STATE TRAINING MINISTERS CALL FOR THE FACTS ON ATCs

Education and Training Minister Rod Welford said it was time for the Federal Government to come clean about its high cost, low return Australian Technical Colleges (ATCs).

At a meeting of State, Territory and Commonwealth Training Ministers in Brisbane today the State Ministers called on the Federal Government to reveal the effectiveness of its alternate, duplicate system.

“The secrecy surrounding the colleges, attrition rates and cost per student illustrates the Commonwealth’s embarrassment on its policy failure,” Mr Welford said.

“While the Federal Education Minister requires voluminous State reporting on every minute detail of each State school, they are not prepared to apply the same transparency to the expenditure of taxpayer’s funds on Commonwealth sponsored private training colleges.

“Since the last election the Howard Government has committed more than $552 million on establishing the ATCs around the country – taxpayers are entitled to know where that money has gone.

“This response is not good enough, given the Prime Minister himself has said the skills crisis is one of the most pressing challenges facing the economy.

“On the Federal Government’s own figures, we’ll have a skills shortage of between 200,000 and 250,000 people in this country over the next five to ten years.

“Their solution to the skills crisis, the Australian Technical Colleges, will only produce 10,000 students by 2010.

Mr Welford said the nation was riding high on the resources boom and it made sense to invest in the future of the industry by skilling workers accordingly.

“Queensland is leading the way in addressing the nation’s skills shortage and our strong training culture will ensure the state remains competitive in the international economy,” he said.

“In the vital area of vocational education and training our Government will invest $118 million in 2007-08 as part of its four-year $1 billion Queensland Skills Plan.

“In addition to record funding from the Beattie Government, the number of Queenslanders commencing apprenticeships and traineeships in 2006 was up nine per cent on the previous year. That’s well above the national average of 1.7 per cent.

“Now it’s time for the Federal Government to let the people of Australia know how cost-effective their ATCs are.”

Media contact: Emma Clarey on 32371000 or 0417 791 336