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Investment in skilled workers SOUTH Australia is investing heavily in skilled workers to benefit the state in years to come.$98 million over four years was included in the recent budget to strategically develop a skilled workforce for the changing future of South Australia. Treasurer Kevin Foley said the money would help fund the recently announced Skills Strategy for the state. "The strategy features a cohesive set of 24 new initiatives being coordinated across Government to develop the State's workforce in priority industry areas," Mr Foley said. "More than $400 million is already invested in the state each year in skills and employment development programmes to meet the State's broad workforce needs," the Treasurer said. Minister for Employment Training and Further Education, Paul Caica, said the funding would drive the strategy, providing a skilled workforce for the thousands of new jobs that will be created in the next decade and beyond. "With a record high number of South Australians in jobs, unemployment at the lowest levels recorded and more and more young workers seeking apprenticeships and training, we need to ensure we have the right structures in place to develop the workforce for our expanding industry sectors in mineral resources, defence, manufacturing and construction," Mr Caica said. This skills strategy, boosted by $52.1 million of new money in the budget, focuses on seven priority areas: * $60.2m to respond to the skill needs of major projects * $19.1m to develop a skilled workforce * $2m to improve workforce planning * $5.7m to boost workforce participation * $4.5m to increase science & maths study in schools * $4.5m to increase skilled migration * $2m to foster career development. Growing demand for skills training and development has forced the government to reprioritise its support to the training sector. These outcomes will help meet growing industry demands, re-focus resources on priority areas and fund greater access to skills development for more South Australians. These measures include: * Saving $6m through reduction in enterprise training subsidies. Entry level training in the retail industry, particularly the fast food sector, is low skilled, does not rank highly on the state's skills priorities and will not continue to be supported by the government. The subsidy will, however, continue to target groups disadvantaged in the labour market. * Investing $1.7m over three years in higher qualification training in areas of growing industry skill demand, this year including engineering, construction and after-school child care. * Raising $5.8m through an increase in "User Choice" training fees. A new maximum of $2.00 an hour will apply for off-the-job training of apprentices and trainees adding an extra $450 on average to the cost of a four-year apprenticeship. * Saving $7.2m over four years by lifting the annual fee cap for TAFE students. While the new cap will be $1900, a majority of TAFE's 80,000 students will continue to pay annual fees below this and discounts will still apply through TAFE's Fee Equity Scheme. * Recouping $100,000 through an indexation adjustment for fees for introductory further education courses. Significantly discounted preparatory and pre vocational course fees will rise 10 cents to 60 cents an hour. The budget has also identified savings measures within the state's training system including: * $6.1 million over four years in efficiency dividends * $18.6 million over four years in head office efficiencies and * $6.8 million in TAFE overhead reductions. |
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