Page 1029 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017

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Rosie Batty and they were able to donate $9,000 to the Women’s Legal Centre. It is because of efforts like these that the staff and clients of the Women’s Legal Centre feel valued and appreciated. All of those women combined are assisting women in the ACT to reach their potential and be the best that they can, and I am grateful for that. I congratulate the Soroptimists on their ongoing dedication.

Canberra Institute of Technology

MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (4.56): Today I rise to highlight the excellent work of the Canberra Institute of Technology. I am a product of the CIT, and look where it has taken me! Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the CIT Reid campus. There I found myself in my old classroom and met a number of the next generation of hairdressers. These are wonderful people—young women and men who have chosen a career in hairdressing. And what a career it can be. As a Labor member, I believe that these people—those learning skills and trades at CIT—are the future of this city. The type and level of education a person receives should not predetermine a person’s fate.

For Canberrans, CIT is an important tool of social mobility. It provides many options for interaction and many options for learning new skills or improving on existing ones. CIT continually demonstrates strong graduate employment outcomes. The high quality of education and training is reflected in the high satisfaction rates for both students and employers. Our local economy and community continue to benefit from the high quality of skills provided by CIT and the high quality of trade services provided by students. This is a public sector solution, providing actual skills, not paper qualifications. CIT is open to everyone. CIT has always excelled at responding to the need for individualised education.

Our community is diverse, and the people in it all have individual strengths, interests and experiences. Because of this, they have different ways of learning. It is CIT that so often provides that accessible education and training. Education is empowering, and we should encourage and facilitate it in all its forms.

CIT has won too many awards to list. This is a reflection of the high quality of education and training provided by the institution. Vocational training plays an important role in both our community and local economy. CIT always maintains strong relationships with industry. This results in excellent outcomes for graduates, as well as one of the highest student satisfaction scores in the country.

Before I came down to give this address I had an opportunity to look at CIT’s latest annual report. What a great Canberra story the Labor government has delivered with CIT: 83.5 per cent of CIT graduates employed after training, compared to 74.3 nationally; 92.7 per cent employed or in further study compared to 86.5 nationally; 29,944 program enrolments; 938 international students from 86 countries; 748 self-identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. These statistics are all very impressive but it is the teaching staff, some of whom I have had the great pleasure to meet recently, who have delivered these outcomes.

I encourage all members here to support CIT, and I would particularly like to pass on the hairdressing apprentices’ request that more people go along to get their hair done to give them the practice they require to get their qualification.


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