Page 2458 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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The Fyshwick campus will be a one-stop shop for anyone who is serious about a successful career in the trades as we consolidate all of the trade school activities onto one campus. Being side by side with Canberra’s most important industrial hubs in Fyshwick and Hume will see our future electricians, plumbers and builders in Canberra begin their future with one foot already in the door.
Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, I was pleased to join with you and the Chief Minister to officially open the new CIT at Tuggeranong, a contemporary, purpose-built educational facility designed for modern learners and offering a vibrant space to connect students, businesses and the local community in the heart of the Tuggeranong town centre. Not only is this campus a brand-new learning environment, but the highly specialised facilities and dynamic learning spaces set a new standard in the modern vocational educational experience in Canberra. As a major southern centre, the Tuggeranong town centre is home to a huge array of small and medium-sized businesses. As CIT’s newest campus, it is natural for Tuggeranong to be the centre of excellence in innovative teaching and learning practices, catering for contemporary and evolving adult learning models.
CIT Tuggeranong is the first instalment of CIT’s long-term vision to modernise all its campuses to provide contemporary learning opportunities, and facilitates and stands out as a fine example of how CIT is adapting its future offerings to meet new expectations and provide skills for students into the future.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I again acknowledge your work, your vision, your persistence and your commitment to developing a CIT campus in the heart of the Tuggeranong town centre. It is wonderful that it is now open, and we will see more and more students there each day as the CIT Tuggeranong campus really puts its stamp on the middle of the Tuggeranong town centre.
As members know, CIT remains central to the government’s plans for vocational education and training and for our collective economic prosperity. It has a very strong record of delivering for our community and a strong plan for its future. The government will continue to support CIT to ensure its continued success. The government will continue to encourage CIT—as it has for many years—to collaborate with institutions across the city.
CIT has a long and proud history of collaboration. That is in contrast to Mr Doszpot’s comments, which I will just speak briefly to. I accept that it is the role of the opposition to ask questions and to scrutinise, but the opposition should not miss the forest for the trees. There was a lost opportunity in the work of the education standing committee in looking at the broader vocational landscape in the ACT.
I would accept, as I think most people would, the word of the national regulator, ASQA, in its report on one program within CIT. While I accept that that should have been scrutinised, it was to the detriment of a broader inquiry into the VET sector here in the ACT and, sadly, a missed opportunity—and also a missed opportunity to rebalance the focus somewhat on all the incredible work that the CIT does, and not weigh down discussion of CIT, again reflecting Mr Doszpot’s recent speech, by using
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