Melissa McIntosh: Education and jobs training important for young people
Businesses across Western Sydney need an ongoing stream of high-quality students to fuel their workforces, writes Melissa McIntosh.
Opinion
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In the final week of Parliament sitting before the winter recess, students from my electorate of Lindsay in Western Sydney embarked on their Year 6 Canberra trip and I met them at Parliament House.
It’s always a delight to see local students in our nation’s Parliament getting a hands-on lesson
in Australia’s democracy, and their excitement and engagement is truly heart-warming, especially after a year of Covid-19 restrictions where none of my local schools were able to visit.
When I meet with students, both here and in our community, I always ask them what they know about the jobs that are coming to Western Sydney. The Western Sydney International Airport and Aerotropolis will drive jobs in emerging industries including advanced manufacturing, medicine and even space.
The students’ eyes light up when they hear about these possibilities.
Are our kids being educated and trained with the skills they will need to take on these jobs of the future?
It’s a question I have been pursuing since the moment I entered Parliament.
In my maiden speech I asked: “How do we move the dial so that more people can work where they live?”
The answer is in Lindsay.
We ensure that Lindsay’s world-class education institutions are training our local kids in the jobs of the future.
This starts in school and connects all the way through to post-school education and training.
When I speak with teachers from schools through to tertiary education in universities, TAFE and other education institutions, there is a common theme and a common concern — our young people are not being adequately educated in the subjects that lead to careers in the jobs of the future, particularly in the subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.
The reason for this is two-fold. STEM teachers are too often found teaching non-STEM subjects and, even before this, we aren’t attracting enough high-quality candidates into teaching, particularly with STEM backgrounds.
Data published as part of the Federal Government’s Quality Initial Teacher Education Review notes up to 17 per cent of STEM teachers are not teaching STEM subjects at a year 10 level; at the critical juncture where students are honing in on their career interests.
Teachers I have spoken with back this up and they also say there is a shortage of quality teachers that are coming through the pipeline.
Attracting high-quality teachers is something that the Minister for Education Alan Tudge is
particularly focussed on in launching the review, with the discussion paper declaring quality teaching to be the most significant in-school driver of student outcomes, having a far greater impact than a school’s resources or size.
The Minister knows just how important it is that we’re getting this right in Western Sydney, having heard this directly from local school principals when we came together at an education roundtable recently in Penrith.
If we aren’t educating our kids in these important subjects with high quality teaching, how are they possibly going to be ready for the jobs of the future?
Working with my Western Sydney Advancing Manufacturing Taskforce, it’s clear that industry also shares this concern. They need an ongoing, and increasing, stream of high-quality students to fuel their future workforce.
I applaud the work the Minister is doing to address this long overdue issue. We need to ensure that it translates into action, and fast, and there is nowhere this matters more than in Western Sydney, where the jobs of the future are just around the corner.
The Western Sydney Airport alone will create around 26,000 jobs by 2031, with thousands more generated by the Western Sydney City Deal.
The Government’s commitment to our region is also encouraging business investment and jobs
growth.
Standing in the heart of Western Sydney, Anthony Pratt made a $2 billion pledge to Visy’s Australian operations over the next decade, which includes investing in glass manufacturing in Penrith.
The Sydney Science Park in Luddenham is developing a $5 billion smart city, driving research and industry.
The jobs of the future will soon become the jobs of today, and it is essential that our local kids are getting these jobs, and not having to do the long commute out of Western Sydney like 300,000 or so of us endure daily.
Ultimately, whether these local jobs go to local people will be decided in today’s classrooms — and the quality of their teachers, and what they are teaching, will have the greatest impact.
Melissa McIntosh is the Federal Member for Lindsay
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