Parliamentary question without notice | WorkReady
08/09/2015
The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills. Can the minister guarantee that the WorkReady supported positions funded for this year will train enough disability and care workers to meet the state’s National Disability Insurance Scheme obligations?
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 his most important question. We have carefully considered all industry needs of the materials that we have got right across industry in relation to the planning of our training activity and, in particular, the area of disability and community services. The government funding in the VET sector will adequately support industry demand for skilled workers in key disability and community services occupation in the coming years.
According to modelling undertaken by TASC, industry demand for skilled workers in disability and community service occupations requires the completion of 20,000 to 25,000 relevant VET courses over the five years to 2017-18 (or between 4,000 to 5,000 completions per year), taking into account the TASC modelling, which incorporates both publicly subsidised and fee-for-service take-up rates and completions. We are on target to ensure that industry demand for skilled workers in disability and community service occupations is met over the five years to 2017-18.
As at 1 September 2015, I am advised that 17,000 qualifications have been issued for disability and community service related courses, or approximately 5,600 per year since 1 July 2012. In recent times, DSD has undertaken a process where some inactive training accounts were closed. A review of all inactive training accounts was last conducted in June 2015 and the results were analysed in July and September. Taking this into account, there are currently 12,700 training accounts open with students undertaking training; of these, over 1,300 have been created since 1 July 2015.
In 2015-16, it is estimated the government will subsidise 8,700 training places for VET courses in disability and community services through TAFE SA alone. For non-TAFE providers, additional training places will be available through the Jobs First STL and also the Jobs First employment program projects, a submission-based element of WorkReady that will fund training courses and tailor employment projects where there is a much closer connection with a real employment outcome.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Of the 17,000 workers who have recently been qualified—I think it was 17,000, but the minister will correct me if I am wrong—to what level are they qualified and how long did it take them to complete that qualification? Also, will the minister offer fee-free TAFE courses in disability and aged support, and community services, acknowledging the lack of qualified support workers and trained staff in these industries?
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 don’t agree with the last assertion of the honourable member that there is a lack of qualified people. I have just outlined the significant level of qualifications in the industry, both in previous years and up to 2017-18. I have just outlined the modelling and, from that modelling, we are well on target, if not in advance of those targets. So there is nothing there to suggest that we are short on qualifications.
In terms of fee free, under WorkReady there are some foundation skills that are still available fee free and, of course, we still provide significant subsidisation across our subsidised training lists, and also, I think, to about 53 trades apprenticeship qualifications, so there is still significant subsidisation occurring. In terms of the specific qualifications, I don’t have those lists in front of me, but they are the standard qualifications required for pre-entry and entry level to employment.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Further supplementary: how many support workers has the minister actually attempted to hire, rather than just qualify, in the aged-care and disability sectors in recent months, and can the minister outline the turnover rate in the disability and aged support sectors for support workers?
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): Sorry, I didn’t catch the first question, the question around support workers.
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: How many support workers has the minister actually attempted to hire of those qualified in the disability and aged sectors, and can you outline the rate of turnover for these workers?
The Hon. G.E. GAGO: The honourable member would need to go to the industry for those figures. The government doesn’t hire—do you mean education support workers in education?
The Hon. K.L. Vincent: No, in disability.
The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I don’t have those figures. I am not the minister responsible for disability services. The honourable member would have to get that from the disability minister. However, as I have indicated in terms of the modelling that has been done through TASC, we are well placed in terms of our qualified labour force needs in the disability and community services sector. The honourable member would need to inquire into the industry itself to glean turnover. In terms of the VET sector, we look at completion rates and such like, but once people are out and employed we do not collect that data.
