TRAINING — LOWER
FEES, LOCAL SKILLS PROGRAM
382. Ms R.S. STEPHENS to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's efforts to create more training opportunities in critical
occupations through the Lower Fees, Local Skills program.
(1) Can the
parliamentary secretary outline to the house how the government's
commitment to TAFE and training has delivered more training opportunities for Western
Australians?
(2) Can the
parliamentary secretary outline this government's record on TAFE and
training, and how it compares with that of the previous Liberal–National
government?
Mr T.J.
HEALY replied:
I thank the member for Albany for
the question. I knowledge that the member for Albany is a former hairdressing student and a former lecturer at Albany TAFE, so
she knows TAFE and the importance of the training sector very well.
(1)–(2) Under the McGowan government more Western Australians
are being trained than ever before. The training sector under this government has experienced a major surge with new
data, which I can inform the chamber of, showing 150 000 publicly funded
course enrolments reported in 2021—the highest ever recorded. The number of student enrolments was up 21 per cent
from 2020. Western Australian employers are also signing up apprentices
and trainees at record levels. For example, 10 000 apprenticeship and trainee
contracts were registered in just three months this year, which has never been
achieved before. In March 2020 alone, there were over 4 000 registrations,
which is the highest number of monthly registrations on record. It is not only
commencements that are up; apprenticeship completions increased by 26 per cent
in March this year, and trainee completions were up by 12 per cent. This is on
top of freezing TAFE fees as soon as we came
to government to give Western Australians certainty on fee prices. Then we
reduced TAFE fees for 210 higher
priority courses by up to 72 per cent. We undertook the largest TAFE capital
works program in WA history with $25 million in new state-of-the-art
equipment at TAFE colleges. We had incentive programs for businesses to employ
more apprentices and trainees.
Everyone knows that when we came to
government, the training sector was in a mess. Under the members opposite, we
saw the trashing of the TAFE system, funding cuts, skyrocketing fees and
plummeting enrolments. Between 2013 and 2017, the former Liberal–National
government increased fees by over 500 per cent; and annual student enrolments
fell by up to 25 000. It wrecked the TAFE sector and paved the way for the
skills shortage we are now dealing with. The McGowan government has been fixing
the damage, working with industry and equipping workers with job-ready skills,
and our investment in the TAFE sector is
paying off. We have had the highest-ever record enrolments, the largest TAFE
capital works program ever and we
have reduced course fees. The training sector has never been in a stronger
place than it is under the McGowan Labor government.