CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (16:32): TAFE and vocational education is critical for the future of regional Australia. This was again highlighted to me when I recently visited the TAFE SA campus at Mount Barker during National Skills Week. This TAFE has courses including nursing pathways, whether that be a certificate III or a diploma in nursing; defence industry pathways; or certificates in aged care and disability, numeracy and literacy, automotive and building trades.

This access for our local young people and mature-aged students is making a real difference. Not only did I witness the commitment of staff and students but also the importance of having quality training available where people actually live. When we train people locally, there is a much better chance that those skills will stay in our community.

The benefits are significant. These facilities give young people a reason to stay in their communities and provide local employers with the workforce that they need. At the Mount Barker TAFE site we also saw its new upgraded multitrade workshop.

This will expand local building and construction training and have the capacity to support up to 1,200 apprentices. This is exactly the sort of investment we need in our communities, especially in an area like Mount Barker, which has a population that is rapidly growing. My state of South Australia is facing a skills shortage, including in early childhood education, in hospitals, in defence, construction and the tech sector.

That's just one of the reasons why the fee-free vocational education at TAFE is so important. Each year in South Australia more than 200,000 people undertake some form of vocational education. Of those, about 70,000 are supported through a government fee subsidy.

In the past 12 months, 12,500 students have accessed free training through the fee-free program. This kind of training is critical to our post-secondary mix. To me, this is what we need to do.

We need to be encouraging and training our own rather than looking to import people from overseas. We need to think about our own young people and get them the skills they need. It takes so much more than a qualification.

It's about real-life training, a pathway to a career, ensuring businesses have access to skilled workers and helping our regions grow. That's why I will continue to do all I can to advocate for strong public investment in TAFE apprenticeships and vocational education, particularly in our regions. I'd just like to give a quick shout-out to Chris Mitchell Moore.

He is the former Meadows Auto Repair business owner. He's actually finished up his business but now trains our young people in motor mechanics. Good on you, Chris.