Page 2519 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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Skills Canberra is working with local RTOs, including CIT, to make sure local industry and business has access to a highly trained and skilled workforce, and the potential students are guided towards qualification with a higher chance of employment.
To do this the ACT government unveiled last year the signature entitlement program, skilled capital, to capture industry need and to fund training programs that will deliver training in high skills needs areas. Skilled capital was developed as one of the ACT government’s commitments under the national partnership agreement on skills reform. The skilled capital initiative provides $21 million over three years to improve access to high quality training in areas of skills need and to maximise improved employment outcomes for students.
The initiative also provides a comprehensive range of student support services to ensure students accessing training receive the help they need to successfully complete their chosen qualifications. As at 8 August—just yesterday—there have been over 3,500 enrolments in skilled capital since the program was launched in February last year. The skilled capital 12-month evaluation was conducted in the early part of 2016 to review the first year of operation. Although skilled capital is still within its pilot phase, the evaluation showed that the program is clearly meeting the intended outcomes with high completion rates and great outcomes for students undertaking qualifications in high skills needs areas.
The ACT government through this budget has a range of measures that will support this billion dollar industry: our education and research industry. The government is committed to developing policies, programs and initiatives in this area which will grow our economy, drive jobs growth in the future and make Canberra truly the education and research capital of Australia.
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (5.25): I wish to speak on the sport and recreation output class. We are a city that loves our sport. We have numerous teams competing at the national level doing us proud. Just this year we have had the Brumbies get through to the super rugby quarter finals and the Raiders are currently sitting third in the NRL. We had the Canberra Heat men’s and women’s teams in volleyball make the national league finals at the end of last year, with the men taking out the national title. More recently the CBR Brave ice hockey team secured their third consecutive trip to the Australian hockey league finals. Canberra United women’s football team continue to be one of the best teams in the country and the Canberra Cavalry made another appearance in the Australian baseball league finals.
Of course, all these teams and their successes could not happen without the continued support of the community-level grassroots sports. Unfortunately, this is where the community has felt most let down by this government.
It is a regular occurrence in my office to have sports clubs call, visit or email me about the state of our local grounds. Clubs talk of grounds that have major divots, turf missing and even sprinkler heads that stick out of the ground. One particular junior sports club told me a story about how every week they need to put a witch’s hat over a protruding sprinkler so that kids will not injure themselves on it.
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