SA Liberals pledge new technical college for Adelaide’s west if elected

A NEW technical college in the western suburbs, preparing high school students for careers in shipbuilding and defence, would be established if the Liberal Party wins the state election.

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A NEW technical college able to prepare high school students for careers in shipbuilding and defence would be established in the western suburbs if the Liberal Party wins the state election.

A Marshall government would run an expression of interest process to find a school or schools to partner with it for the project.

The college could be a new campus of a current school or an expansion of a campus.

The Liberals are willing to work with either public or private schools.

“South Australia is on the cusp of a naval shipbuilding jobs boom and a Marshall government will renew the skilled jobs training sector in an effort to snare every last one of those new, highly skilled, well-paid jobs for a local,” education spokesman John Gardner said.

“Our western suburbs technical college will be heavily ­engaged with defence, shipbuilding and other maritime industries to maximise its benefits for the students and the industry.”

Mr Gardner said the college would run in a similar way to St Patrick’s Technical College, at Edinburgh North, and Marcellin Technical College, at Christie Downs, two Catholic schools that were “having tremendous success delivering first-class educations to school students who wish to undertake a technical qualification”.

The Liberals have not yet put a costing on the college, but it will be part of a broader vocational education and training policy, to be announced today. The policy includes flexible arrangements to allow more students to complete the first year of an apprenticeship at the same time as their SACE studies.

“A significant proportion of school-based apprenticeships require the student’s attendance at the workplace for only one or two days a week, or after hours,” Mr Gardner said.

“A more intensive approach will enable students to have made far greater progress with their technical qualifications – in many cases completing the first year of their apprenticeship – by the time they leave school with their SACE.”