Page 4699 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Mr Speaker, as you have already heard, the Education Act 2004 is being amended to create a requirement for all children and young people to participate in schooling until they complete year 10 and participate in full-time education, training or employment, or a combination of these activities, after they have completed year 10, until the age of 17. These amendments to the Education Act and the COAG reform agenda present the ACT with a significant opportunity to transform education in the ACT. These reforms provide improved educational opportunities for every school student in the ACT that will enhance their employment capacity, enhance their earning potential and enhance the ACT’s record of excellence in educational achievement.
As part of this reform, the ACT will develop a youth commitment that will ensure that the needs of each young person are at the heart of agency activities. If a student moves from school to further education and training or work then he or she will continue to be accounted for, cared for and supported.
As the new minister for children and young people, it is the ACT youth commitment that I would like to highlight today. The ACT youth commitment will support young people in school, training and the workplace. The youth commitment will require all agencies that serve young people to the age of 17 to commit to ensuring that no young person is lost from education, training or employment. It establishes a shared responsibility among the people and organisations important in ensuring that the right opportunities are provided, that the right choices are taken, by young people in the ACT when it comes to their education, training and work. This partnership therefore includes public and government schools; private and non-government schools; the Canberra Institute of Technology; registered training organisations; community organisations; employers; parents; related government, commonwealth and ACT, and non-government agencies; and, indeed, the young people of the ACT.
The youth commitment will establish a new set of expectations for ACT schools and the community regarding young people’s experience in schooling and their transitions into further education, training and work. The youth commitment is underpinned by the ACT Education Act amendments to the compulsory education age and the range of policies, services, activities and programs, both current and into the future, operating to support children and young people.
Similar approaches to this exist in other jurisdictions and in other countries but the ACT is in a unique position to apply the youth commitment better than anyone and further enhance the ACT’s record in educational achievement. For young people in the ACT, the message is simple. It is that you matter.
Agencies will sign an agreement and procedures will be developed to ensure that transfer of and responsibility for the young person from one agency to another happens effectively. This will be an enduring shift in the ACT’s approach to supporting young people through this important stage of their lives.
The responsibility of an agency is to know where a young person that they are responsible for is and what is happening to support them. If a young person moves from one agency or sector to another, the responsibility of that agency extends to the
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