Page 3331 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The employment and training grants program, through funding to such activities as Involve, Jobline, Caloola Farm and the Work Resources Centre, provided assistance to nearly 600 15- to 19-year-olds in 1993. The trades and technical women on the move program, which encourages girls and young women to consider the broader range of career options available to them today, thus giving them more skilled employment opportunities, visited 52 schools and was seen by over 10,000 students in 1993. The venture and development assistance program provided grants to organisations such as the Belconnen Youth Centre, Quest, Barnardos and the Work Resources Centre to run projects to assist young people to train for, seek or gain employment. The workers compensation rebate scheme assists employers to meet some of the costs associated with employing first-year apprentices or trainees.
In addition, in last year's budget the ACT Government funded the Youth Joblink program, which is run by the ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This program takes job-ready teenagers and places them in jobs created in the private sector. In its first half-year of operation, over 80 unemployed young people were placed into jobs in the private sector. However, the ACT Government's role does not end there. It is also an employer, training provider and educator, and there is much being done in these areas. In the 1994-95 budget, the Government provided an additional contribution of $700,000 to the Canberra Institute of Technology and an additional $1.4m in 1995-96 to meet the Territory's commitment to national objectives within the vocational education and training sector. The institute will offer an additional 208 part-time student places in 1994-95 and a further 204 part-time student places in 1995-96. In addition, there will be an increasing number of training places made available through Commonwealth growth funds under the ANTA agreement.
Madam Speaker, there has been an extensive range of pilot projects in the ACT under the Australian vocational certificate training system. This has resulted in the introduction of paid entry-level training arrangements, similar to apprenticeships and traineeships, into a wide range of industries. These developments have been strongly supported by the ACT Government. Young people will be able to obtain a portable qualification which is recognised in both public and private sectors.
The introduction of more structured vocational education and training into the school system will give students a greater understanding of the world of work and real job skills which they can draw on in permanent post-school work. The employment of more than 150 trainees over the last three years makes the ACT Government Service one of the largest public sector employers of trainees in the ACT. Furthermore, I believe that there is a role for the ACT Government Service to work cooperatively with the private sector to ensure that, where practicable, the skills and training that the ACT Government Service provides to young people are also appropriate to private sector needs. I have asked my department and the Department of Public Administration to address such cooperative arrangements in the development of policies related to base-grade recruitment, entry-level training and employment opportunities for people exiting training programs in the ACTGS.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .