Parliamentary question without notice | Disability Sector Employment
03/12/2015
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister a question regarding the disability sector and employment opportunities for people in the northern region of Adelaide.
Leave granted.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: As was discussed in the Sydney Morning Herald a couple of days ago and as is regularly canvassed throughout various media outlets, Australia has a significant shortage of qualified disability support workers, also known as personal attendants, particularly once there is the formal rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme from 2018. This is a regular issue here in South Australia, and it is a daily challenge for people with disabilities to find adequate numbers of, and adequately trained and willing, support workers to assist them with daily tasks.
We also have a significant shortage of trained workers who can make and modify equipment for disabilities, including but not limited to wheelchairs and other mobility aids, as well as post-market modifications to vehicles to make them accessible to wheelchair users, for example. At present we pay sky-high prices for equipment, primarily manufactured overseas. With regard to Changing Places and fully accessible toilets, we have zero of these accessible toilets here in South Australia yet even Darwin in the Northern Territory, which has a much smaller population than us, has some.
All these aforementioned areas could be an opportunity to create new jobs using the existing skills of ex-Holden workers, particularly those working with machinery and mechanics, to create jobs for South Australians, especially in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, where we have the highest youth unemployment rate in Australia. My questions are:
- What action has the government taken to address the shortage of disability and aged care support workers to assist people with disabilities and elderly people and to train appropriate staff, particularly in the northern suburbs of Adelaide?
- What work is the government doing to assess the economic market and benefits of establishing a disability equipment and modification industry in South Australia, particularly in the northern suburbs of Adelaide?
- What work is the government doing to ensure advanced manufacturing of cutting-edge, disability-related technologies here in South Australia?
- Why don’t we have any Changing Places toilets in South Australia, despite 18 per cent of the population being likely to need them in the near future, and when will we get one?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions and her ongoing advocacy and championing of issues to do with disability. In general terms, in relation to the way WorkReady manages skill shortage issues, I will talk about that first and then I will talk about the industry-specific data after that.
When investing in VET training, obviously, the government takes into consideration the lie of the land as it currently is—current needs and demands—and attempts to forecast future demands as well, based on industry input. The allocation of funding for VET training is informed, as I said, through industry, the Department of Employment’s analysis of current skill shortages and the projections of the Training and Skills Commission of future skills needs.
The Department of Employment conducts a survey of employers that have recently advertised vacancies to gauge recruitment difficulties. The survey focuses on skilled occupations that require training over an extended period because, with shortages in those occupations, obviously, it’s challenging to have to do address them quickly.
Projections by the Training and Skills Commission are informed by the latest employment and training data available. The expertise of board members and consultation with stakeholders, obviously, also are important. The commission compares projected industry demand for skills with projected supply of skills to determine future skill needs in the state. According to the modelling by the Training and Skills Commission, future skill needs beyond projected supply have been estimated for a number of areas like health, transport, logistics, ICT, hospitality and a range of others.
In relation to aged and disability care, with the government funding of VET, obviously, we will work to continue to support industry demand with skilled aged care and also disability carers in the coming years. According to modelling undertaken by the Training and Skills Commission, industry demand for these skilled care workers requires a completion of 7,500 to 10,000 relevant VET courses over five years to 2017-18, or between 1,500 and 2,000 completions per year. This incorporates qualifications related to aged care, disability care and relevant community services qualifications like aged care and also, obviously, disability care sectors.
Taking into account modelling by TASC of current take-up rates and completions, we are on target to ensure that industry demand for skilled carers is met over the five years to 2017-18. As at 1 September 2015, I am advised that 7,800 qualifications have been issued for courses, or approximately 2,600 per year in publicly subsidised training alone, and that’s since July 2012. In addition, as at 1 September 2015, there were 3,900 training accounts open with students undertaking training and, of these, nearly 500 have been created since July this year. I think the honourable member can take some heart that there has been a considerable influx of enrolments since July this year.
In particular relation to the disability sector, for courses specifically related to disability, in 2015-16, it is estimated that the government will subsidise more than 550 new training places in disability care related qualifications, and the majority of this will be supported through TAFE SA.
In addition, as at 1 September 2015 there were 1,900 open training accounts, eight of which have been created since July 2015, and over 2,600 publicly subsidised disability care related qualifications issued in these courses since 2012.
In addition to these specific courses relating to disability there are also a number of general community service qualifications that also are relevant to disability care, such as the Cert. IV in Mental Health, and for these courses in 2015 it is estimated that the government will subsidise about 350 training places. As at 1 September 2015 there are also 1,100 open training accounts, 100 of which have been created since 1 July 2015, and over 1,300 publicly subsidised qualifications that have been issued in these courses since 2012.
For non-TAFE providers, I am advised that there will be additional subsidised training places available through Jobs First, a submission-based element of WorkReady that will fund training courses and tailor employment projects in direct connection to jobs. Obviously, those figures do not necessarily mean that all the gaps are filled. Obviously the Hon. Kelly Vincent is providing some valuable feedback here today, which I will certainly make sure is information that is passed to TASC for its further consideration and modelling.
I certainly advise that disability groups engage with TASC in an ongoing way, because it is TASC that does the modelling on which we base our training places, and we focus our public money towards the high priorities identified by them. Obviously connecting those organisations and feeding in their insight and their first-hand experience on the ground is obviously valuable input into the way we model and make sure we have a constant supply.
We do not want overdemand, and obviously we do not want underdemand, as there are significant consequences when either of those occur. We need to get the balance right, and the only way we can do that is to make sure we have good quality industry information being fed into our modelling in an ongoing way.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Supplementary: just to clarify, has disability support work been identified as a future skills need under the current modelling?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): The disability care has, and I would imagine support workers are part of that particular group.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Further supplementary, sir: what is the government doing to engage young people and students of not disability support work but arguably related courses, such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy? Is the government doing anything to encourage people in relevant studies, such as OT and physiotherapy to work as support workers while they complete their university qualifications?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): Our job as the government is to provide resources so that information is available for students and parents, who obviously take a great deal of interest in the training and education of their children. My responsibility is to make sure that information is available so that students can make an informed decision, not just in terms of the courses that are available but also the career pathways that they might lead to, and general information about the course providers as well. So, rather than us recommending that they do anything in particular, we encourage them to follow their own aspirations but provide the relevant information to help them make good choices.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Further supplementary: where is that information?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): It is provided on our website, I understand. We also fund career counselling services that also have that information available to them. Most of our training providers also carry good quality information.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: One last question: has the government done any work in identifying areas where ex-Holden workers could use their existing skills, such as in the manufacturing of disability equipment and disability assistance aids?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): Again, we are encouraging not just Holden workers but any worker who is facing retraining or retrenchment to consider the range of career pathways that are available to them, and information about the sort of training that might assist them to reach those aspirations.
