Page 1065 - Week 04 - Thursday, 22 April 2021
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Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.59): I rise to speak briefly on behalf of Minister Steel who has responsibility for CIT in his capacity as Minister for Skills. The past year has shown us that serious disruptions to our economy and labour market can happen suddenly, leaving many people displaced from their jobs. When that happens, it is vitally important that we have a strong public vocation and training provider which can meet the people’s needs for reskilling and upskilling to help get us back to work. That is exactly the role that CIT has played over the past year and the reason the contribution that this budget has invested in them to make for our community and our economy.
In the last year a major focus for CIT has been the delivery of the majority of local places through the national JobTrainer program established to support the COVID pandemic response. Through a joint investment with the Australian government, we have invested over $16 million on the JobTrainer program. CIT has already filled all 800 fully qualified places as of the start of this study year. It is now focusing on encouraging enrolments in online courses and pre-employment bootcamps.
While JobTrainer is targeted at young people and job seekers, it has been great to see such diversity in those enrolling to study. For example, women make up 55 per cent of total enrolments, which will help continue to strengthen women’s economic participation across Canberra as these students move from training into work.
As I have already touched on in discussing the appropriation to Major Projects Canberra, CIT is getting ready for the move to the new campus that our government is custom building for them at the Woden town centre. This is not, of course, just going to mean a change of address. CIT is taking this opportunity to make important changes to its teaching and learning. I will have more to say about this work in the months to come but it is exciting to see CIT embracing the opportunities of digitally enabled education and working hard to ensure its offers align with the needs of students and industry today.
CIT sits at the heart of Canberra’s skills and training ecosystem and through our investments in their courses, facilities and support services, our government will continue to support the vital role that they play. This is another area where Minister Steel is working hard to deliver skills and jobs for Canberra while ensuring growth in Woden.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Leave of absence
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Mr Steel for this day due to illness.
Sitting suspended from 12.02 to 2 pm.
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