Page 4704 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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employers, schools and training providers. The only obligation is to continue these relationships and let the department know when a young person makes a different choice.
These reforms focus on student choice. If a student chooses an apprenticeship or work then we will support them. We will continue to invest and deliver in this area. For example, in recent budgets we have invested over $4 million in providing additional funding to the user choice program to meet high demand for Australian apprenticeships, and the most recent budget included $1.4 million for industry-based training under the Australian school-based apprenticeships program.
This legislative reform today, together with the Bradley review of higher education, is going to mean fundamental change in education and training in the ACT. I can confidently say in November 2009 that our higher education training system will be fundamentally different within five years. This work is underway within our autonomous universities. It is a piece of work that will be extensively undertaken through 2010 in relation to ACT government-run education and training providers.
But there is a lot of background to this and, in light of some recent commentary in the Canberra Times and some observations in relation to alternative models, I think it is wise to remind members that back in 2006 the government commissioned a review into the secondary college system in the ACT and it made a number of recommendations. I would like to talk about those in the time I have remaining, particularly around the extensive and effective collaboration that is needed between the ACT college system and the CIT in developing and delivering VET programs, which was a very clear recommendation in the secondary college review.
When I talk about learning lessons from the Tasmanian experience and looking at Tasmania, why do I say that? Why is Tasmania relevant? It is a jurisdiction of similar size to the ACT, it has a very similar educational structure, in that years 11 and 12 are separated from high schools, and its policy objective in making the changes it has made is to engage with just the sorts of students that our system is currently not engaging.
Mr Coe: It has been a complete failure, Andrew.
MR BARR: I have never suggested, Mr Speaker, that we would just pick up the Tasmanian model and adopt it in the ACT. But I have been to have a look at its polytechnics and what appeals to me is how it has very effectively utilised the fantastic VET resources that it has in its TAFEs and brought those facilities to year 11 and 12 students. As many education stakeholders in this territory have observed, we must improve the quality of our VET programs in years 11 and 12, and I am determined that the debate in this territory will move beyond just the university pathway. Whilst a higher percentage of students in the ACT than anywhere else in the country go on to university, still the vast majority do not go on to university but take alternative education pathways. We must in our education system respond to the needs of those students.
As the review of secondary colleges said, we must reconceptualise our accredited courses; they must complement vocational courses. Consideration must be given to
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