SA Liberals plan to provide traineeships and apprenticeships to 20,000 South Australians

HIGHER education courses would be offered to an extra 20,000 trainees and apprentices under a Liberal Party to boost skills in the state.

• Libs pledge technical college for Adelaide’s west

HIGHER education courses would be offered to an extra 20,000 trainees and apprentices under a Liberal Party to boost skills in the state.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said the skilled jobs training sector was key to ensuing the state had the high-quality workforce to cope with the “naval shipbuilding jobs boom” and pledged $100 million over four years to bolster the sector.

Mr Marshall said the extra funding would go directly to training institutions, and was confident businesses would hire the extra 20,000 skilled young people.

“When we’re talking to industry every day of the week they’re telling us they’re really concerned about the massive reduction in the number of kids that are applying for and commencing traineeships and apprenticeships,” he said.

Opposition leader Steven Marshall after the SA Liberals’ campaign launch. Picture: AAP / Matt Loxton

“There’s a looming skills crisis. Every industry and sector is saying the same thing.”

He said a huge fall-off in the number of apprenticeships and traineeships in SA had “decimated employment opportunities and general prosperity in our state”.

The number of apprenticeships and traineeships has fallen from 33,300 in 2013 to 15,700 in 2017.

“The reality is that in SA because of Labor’s failure with their TAFE scandal and their mismanagement of vocational education and training we are heading towards a dangerous shortage in our state,” he said.

“A skills crisis of Labor’s making. They’ve been pulling huge amounts of money out of their training budget and this is now setting up a real problem for us in SA going forward.”

Premier Jay Weatherill said the Government’s vocational educational and training had returned to about the level it was before it implemented its Skills for All program — which he said had “massively increased” funding.

“(The Liberals) love to compare our massive ramp-up ... with where we are currently spending. It’s a misunderstanding,” he said.

“The important thing is creating ... exciting new jobs so that young people want to stay in SA to obtain. We’ve already got the great skills and the great talent out there.”

Mr Marshall’s reforms also include giving industry more say about the training system and encouraging flexible apprenticeship pathways.

The Liberals would also build a technical college in Adelaide’s northwestern suburbs, as revealed in The Advertiser.

Cavpower managing director Alistair Cavill said anything to help his company train apprentices or reduce the length of an apprentice would be welcome.

The company employs about 55 apprentices, down from 100 at the top of the mining boom.

“As an industrialist in SA, I would probably suggest the training of skilled tradespeople is one of the most important things that anybody could be focusing on,” he said.

“As an employer it’s not the funding to me that’s important. It’s the capacity to be able to put young people through training and pop out the other end as a highly skilled technician for us in the future.”