Page 1302 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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high-quality training that will then lead to viable long-term employment for Canberrans.
I think you could clearly see, from the ABS data on unemployment and the longer term, not just one quarter, outcomes in vocational education and training, the territory continues to perform very well. All the indicators for the first quarter of 2009, through our largest training provider, the CIT, are very positive for the future.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, a supplementary question?
MR HANSON: Thank you. Minister, given that, when will we actually see positive trends rather than negative trends in commencements and people continuing in training?
MR BARR: If Mr Hanson had bothered to listen to my answer, he would not have needed to ask his supplementary question. But, I repeat: the early indications on enrolment for CIT in the first quarter of 2009 are very encouraging. One example I will give—I will repeat—is that in childcare, as a result of the commonwealth government’s fee subsidy, there is a 140 per cent increase in the number of enrolments in the childcare training course provided at the CIT campus in Woden. That is very important, as we know, because we are going to have 900 more childcare places in this city during the course of 2009. The government, through its early childhood schools, is opening four new childcare centres around the city, in addition to a number of other private providers and community-based providers. That is just one example of one sector where there is a massive increase in the number of people in training. That is just one example, but, as I say, across many other industry groups, be it construction, tourism and hospitality and a range of other areas—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members, I cannot hear the minister.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I will, of course, draw the member’s attention to the government’s significant $14 million investment in new horticulture training facilities at the CIT campus at Bruce. That is yet another example of the government investing in vocational education and training. There are also the upgrades to the Fyshwick skills centre for the CIT. There are a number of projects and investment in vocational education and training. CIT continues to be the ACT’s leading provider of vocational education and training and, in fact, continues to have considerable success at a national level.
Mr Hanson: Mr Speaker, on a point of order on relevance: the question I asked was when, not what.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr, perhaps you can try and—
MR BARR: I have concluded my answer.
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