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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2701 ..

MS MacDONALD: I am ever hopeful, Mr Humphries. I would like to take some time during this debate to look at past achievements and reflect on where we are heading with vocational education and training in the future. Amongst other things, tonight's awards will recognise the achievements of apprentices and trainees in our community. Having a genuine passion for vocational education and training before entering this place, which is quite rare, it should come as no surprise that I would want to talk about that valuable contribution made by apprentices and trainees to the community-to our community and to the Australian community in general.

With the inquiry into vocational education and training being held by the Standing Committee on Education, now seems an appropriate time to start analysing recent facts and figures and planning for a better vocational education training program in the ACT. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have to say that vocational education and training is one area where acronyms are coming fast and furious, as I am sure the minister will attest to, but my speech today is fairly merciful and will only refer to vocational education and training as VET. I will use just the one acronym.

Overall, 150 nominations were received this year for the ACT training excellence awards, with 33 of these nominations being received from apprentices and 49 being received from trainees. These nominations were narrowed down to a short-list of seven apprentices and 10 trainees, which was quite a narrowing down, I have to say. This year's finalists reflect the diversity of programs and occupations available under the new apprenticeships program.

The courses undertaken included, but were not limited to, horticulture in nursery science; electrotechnology in electrical systems; construction, including carpentry but not ending there as there were all the normal and traditional construction areas, such as building and plumbing; community services in aged care, which also had child care available; sport and recreation, which is a burgeoning area for traineeships; traineeships as librarians; and telecommunications and the call centre industry, which is an area in which, going back 10 years, you would never find a traineeship.

The majority of these finalists contribute a vast amount of their time and energy to community activities on top of doing their training. For example, one apprentice finalist is heavily involved in providing volunteer gardening services for the elderly and disabled. Another trainee finalist currently works as a personal care assistant in a residential home for the elderly. The contribution of these apprentices and trainees to the welfare of the Canberra community is profound.

At a time when our community seems to be becoming more inward looking, selfish and focused on what life can give to it, those two examples provide hope that there are community-spirited people out there, especially amongst our youth. The trainees and apprentices do not have to go above and beyond their role as trainees, but the skills, self-esteem and appreciation for life skills provided by their training have resulted in their positive behaviour. These selfless stories demonstrate clearly one of the valuable outcomes of vocational education and training.

I would like to turn briefly to the matter of participation rates. At 31 December 2001, the people participating in apprenticeships or traineeships in the ACT aged between 20 and 24 years comprised 40.5 per cent or two-fifths of the number of people undertaking

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