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Speaker 1: But I'm pleased to start the morning today welcoming to

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Speaker 1: the studio the Honorable Brendan O'Connor, who is Minister Federal

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Speaker 1: Minister for Skills and Training. Minister. Good morning, Welcome, Good

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Speaker 1: morning with you. Just pull the microphone down a little

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Speaker 1: bit closer to you. Yeah, there we go. That's a

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Speaker 1: bit better. So you're here because there's a big announcement

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Speaker 1: this morning around twenty minutes or so early Childhood Education

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Speaker 1: and Care at TAFE Center of Excellence. Tell us a

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Speaker 1: bit about that.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, the fact is we need more preschool educators

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Speaker 2: because increasingly families are wanting their kids to go not

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Speaker 2: just going to childcare centers for care. They want to

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Speaker 2: go in so that they can be educated. And if

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Speaker 2: you look across the world, those countries that are doing

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Speaker 2: well are actually formally educating kids before primary school these days.

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Speaker 2: So the combination of the care that's needed because mums

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Speaker 2: and dads are at work and the education that helps

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Speaker 2: kids even be better prepared for primary school needs to

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Speaker 2: be attended to. And this Center of Excellence that's been

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Speaker 2: announced by the Malnascus and the Albanese government an investment

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Speaker 2: in a Tape Center of excellence will produce the skills

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Speaker 2: needed for this sector of the economy. In other words,

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Speaker 2: educators looking after kids, preschool and that is the future.

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Speaker 2: That's what's happening here and that's what's happening around Australia.

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Speaker 2: So I'm very happy to be a part of that

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Speaker 2: announcement today.

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Speaker 1: Training for them. Well, do we have enough people? Firstly,

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Speaker 1: because that's been the issue all the way through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So the fact is no, we have a scare.

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Speaker 2: We have a paucity of skilled people looking after preschool kids.

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Speaker 2: We need to also attract people into this profession. There's

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Speaker 2: no doubt that many, many people who go into this

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Speaker 2: area love it. They're passionate, you know, teachers. The one

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Speaker 2: great thing is they're passionate. We have to make sure though,

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Speaker 2: we attract people here because it's I mean, the fact

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Speaker 2: about preschool education is not only about educating the kid,

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Speaker 2: it's caring for kids when both parents are choosing to work.

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Speaker 2: So it's a social issue, it's an economic issue, and

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Speaker 2: I think if we educate people, provide the opportunities for them,

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Speaker 2: the jobs will be there because the demand is growing

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Speaker 2: across the across the country, including in South Australia.

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Speaker 1: Now, early childhood education is a bit different to going

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Speaker 1: to the old teachers college, isn't it as people did

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Speaker 1: in our day? So early education training, what does that involve?

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Speaker 1: What's different here?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think I think the difference between teaching in

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Speaker 2: a classroom and preschool educations. That is the combination of

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Speaker 2: providing care to what are really, you know, very young

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Speaker 2: infants and at the same time have the capacity to

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Speaker 2: educate two three and four year olds. And I think

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Speaker 2: that takes a different approach because you are mixing two

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Speaker 2: schools there caring and educating in a way you wouldn't

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Speaker 2: have to in primary and secondary school. That's the first thing. Secondly,

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Speaker 2: I think people are very keen to do it, but

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Speaker 2: we have to make sure that we have a sufficient number.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there are issues about wage relative If it

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Speaker 2: is they're not well, you know, they're not highly paid.

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Speaker 2: It might be rewarding work, but we have to find

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Speaker 2: ways to attract people in it. I think over time

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Speaker 2: there'll be a need to increase their wages. I think

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Speaker 2: to be commensurate with the skills and responsibilities they have

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Speaker 2: to undertake the care and education of our children.

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Speaker 1: It's an important and we keep hearing from governments that

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Speaker 1: this is so important get young kids in early education

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Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. Should they be making the same

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Speaker 1: money as teachers.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the point. They are now becoming teachers.

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Speaker 2: There was a point we just say childcare workers, that's

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Speaker 2: how you drop the kids off, go to work childcare.

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Speaker 2: What's happened over time, and it's happening around the world

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Speaker 2: in very successful countries, is that form of care is

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Speaker 2: now also also moving into formal education. And I think

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Speaker 2: if we're going to keep up in a globalized, knowledge

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Speaker 2: based economy, if we want to maintain our standard of

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Speaker 2: living as a as a nation, then we have to

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Speaker 2: educate people earlier. And if you look at the around

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Speaker 2: the world, those countries doing best is where they have

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Speaker 2: very smart and knowledgeable labor markets and this is a

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Speaker 2: part of that. And I think this center of excellence

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Speaker 2: that I'm announcing with Blair Boyer, the Schools Minister in

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Speaker 2: South Australia today is about investing in Tayfe Essay but

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Speaker 2: also working with Flinders and Adelaide universities and the sector

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Speaker 2: to make sure we get the school set right.

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Speaker 1: Why is tape involved in this because normally you would

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Speaker 1: have thought this would be a university course.

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Speaker 2: No. In fact, large and large parts of education and

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Speaker 2: childcare and preschool education is actually delivered by TAPE. But

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Speaker 2: you're right about the university component. We need a combination

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Speaker 2: of both tertiary sectors, the TAPE sector and universities working

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Speaker 2: together to work with the sector. And that's what this

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Speaker 2: is all about. This Center of Excellence is bringing together

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Speaker 2: all those constituent parts, making sure we get the right

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Speaker 2: school set, making sure we know exactly what's happening, but

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Speaker 2: also ensure we don't have this antiquator delineation, this old

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Speaker 2: divide between universities and TAFE. What's happening not just in

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Speaker 2: this area but across the labor market, like in energy

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Speaker 2: and manufacturing, is this confluence of universities and TAFE working together.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Brenda O'Connor's my guest Minister for Schools and Training

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Speaker 1: with an announcement today at the TAFE center in a

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Speaker 1: light square. There about a center of excellence that's been

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Speaker 1: established early childhood, education and care, those other sectors and

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Speaker 1: the one that comes up the most. Of course at

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Speaker 1: the moment, housing the government not on track to build.

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Speaker 1: It's a determined number of houses in the period that

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Speaker 1: you've put forward. So we do need more trained people,

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Speaker 1: we need more schools. That ideally, I suppose lends itself

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Speaker 1: to the argument of migration, is that where we're going

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Speaker 1: to help.

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Speaker 2: Us now, it's never one thing, it's a combination. And

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Speaker 2: in the recent budget we announced a further eighty million

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Speaker 2: dollars to increase for twenty thousand fee free tape places

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Speaker 2: for people working in the housing construction sector. That's on

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Speaker 2: top of the fee free tape we already had last

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Speaker 2: year about three hundred and fifty five thousand roll and

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Speaker 2: fee free tape, a lot of them in the construction area.

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Speaker 2: We're also reviewing the way we provide apprenticeship support, so

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Speaker 2: the completion rates at the moment, which are just over

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Speaker 2: fifty percent, increase. So first and foremost we have to

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Speaker 2: focus on investing in education training in the housing and

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Speaker 2: construction sector to deliver the one point two million houses domestically,

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Speaker 2: but we'll always look to supplement that with very targeted

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Speaker 2: skilled migration. So it's a combination of both. But mostly,

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Speaker 2: I mean, our best resource in this country I think

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Speaker 2: are our people. As a provider, we give people access

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Speaker 2: to the skills that they need. They can get great jobs. Businesses,

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Speaker 2: get the skilled because they're crying out for and our

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Speaker 2: economy is better off now. Whether it's housing or transition

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Speaker 2: in the energy sector, or building a future made in Australia,

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Speaker 2: or looking after you preschool kids, it's all about skills.

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Speaker 2: And if we get the settings right, like today's announcement

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Speaker 2: on the Center of Excellence, we're going to supply the

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Speaker 2: skills predominantly domestically.

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Speaker 1: Do we need to have a center of excellence for trades.

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Speaker 1: There's been a lot of money and work put into this.

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Speaker 2: We do, and I'm announcing We're announcing twenty The National

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Speaker 2: Skills Agreement is a thirty billion dollar agreement between state

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Speaker 2: and territory governments and the Albanese government. And I announced

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Speaker 2: I was with Jim Chalmers in Cannes the other day

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Speaker 2: announcing one for healthcare. I was in Perth announcing one

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Speaker 2: on energy transition. And these centers of Excellence, including the

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Speaker 2: one here, and there'll be more in South Australia. By

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Speaker 2: the way, are networking with other tapes and centers of

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Speaker 2: excellence around Australia. So in other words, Adelaide will learn

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Speaker 2: from centers of excellence in other in other cities and

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Speaker 2: other places will learn from this center of excellence because

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Speaker 2: we're networking them. Because all about what is the best

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Speaker 2: way you deliver skills? What are the schools that are

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Speaker 2: needed for the modern economy? Are we keeping up with

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Speaker 2: the changing nature of technology? And this is all going

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Speaker 2: to be shared through these Centers of Excellence which comes

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Speaker 2: out of this National Skills Agreement, this thirty billion dollar

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Speaker 2: agreement that we struck, the first one, I might add

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Speaker 2: in a decade that we have struck with South Australia

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Speaker 2: and every other state and territory government. And I'm very

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Speaker 2: excited about this announcement today.

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Speaker 1: Do you think we need to incentivize in terms of

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Speaker 1: particularly trades and housing and the rest older people, retirees

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Speaker 1: to come back into the workforce.

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Speaker 2: It's a nonsense I heard Peter, don't talk about retires

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Speaker 2: coming back on the tools.

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Speaker 1: Excuse me.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you know much about the building industry.

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Speaker 2: But we need young and middle you know, and younger workers.

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Speaker 2: We need others too, But we don't need retirees at

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Speaker 2: sixty seven trying to get back on the tools. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think that it's just a I'm not saying that

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Speaker 2: people that have time and age can't work in OURA market.

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Speaker 2: They should be able to, and we actually we remove

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Speaker 2: we need them don't well, but we remove the tax

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Speaker 2: impact on them to allow them to that. But by

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Speaker 2: the way, right now, now, even when we removed at

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Speaker 2: less than four percent want to and good on them.

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Speaker 2: They've worked there, they've worked all those years. They're allowed

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Speaker 2: to retire. But no, not for the construction sector. I

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Speaker 2: think DUNT must have forgotten about what it's like to

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Speaker 2: work on the tools. If you're forty that alone sixty seven?

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Speaker 2: What that's a misnomer.

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Speaker 1: What about getting them into training other people?

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And in fact, one of the things I'm

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Speaker 2: doing is having round tables with large construction companies because

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Speaker 2: one of the problems about attracting tradees into TAFE and

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Speaker 2: other VET providers to train people is they make more

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Speaker 2: money on the tools than people make in training people.

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Speaker 2: So we need to find a way to attract older, experienced,

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Speaker 2: remarkable tradees who probably looked up the lots of a

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Speaker 2: this is in their working life, to come into a

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Speaker 2: tape and actually provide the skills to our apprentices. That

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Speaker 2: is a great idea. You're right, you're on the money there,

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Speaker 2: and we need to do more of that. So I'm

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Speaker 2: trying to attract people and I'm trying to get a

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Speaker 2: big companies and say, look, why did you redeploy some

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Speaker 2: of the older experienced workers, because you'll ing up with

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Speaker 2: more tradees in your sector, which is exactly what you need.

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Speaker 1: All right, So skilled targeted migration. Ultimately they're going to

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Speaker 1: be building houses for themselves to live in, though, aren't they.

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Speaker 2: Well that's the point, and that's why we have to

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Speaker 2: be measured. That's why we've halved the net migration for

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Speaker 2: next year. Like look, we had we stopped migration in

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Speaker 2: this country, we close the borders. We had to because

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Speaker 2: of the.

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Speaker 1: You had to, that's right, so many people, and we're.

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Speaker 2: In opposition and we supported that. We supported during the pandemic.

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Speaker 2: But you know, we like, if there was no pandemic,

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Speaker 2: we'ld have far more people in Australia than we have today.

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Speaker 2: But obviously that returned very quickly and as a result,

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Speaker 2: the albanies A government may understood we had to temper that.

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Speaker 2: We just have net migration. You can't rely on migration

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Speaker 2: skills alone. In fact, the previous government really got addicted

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Speaker 2: to temporary migration. There's one and a half million temporary

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Speaker 2: migrants working in the lave market and we need them,

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Speaker 2: but we've got to measure that. But the most important

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Speaker 2: thing I think any national government can do is focus

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Speaker 2: on skilling up, educating and training our people and then

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Speaker 2: supplementing that with skilled migration, not the other way around

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Speaker 2: to say, oh, we just have to bring people in. No,

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Speaker 2: it's a combination. But the focus for me as a

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Speaker 2: Skills Minister is to educate and train people.

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Speaker 1: Here, okay, I appreciate your time coming in this morning.

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Speaker 1: I know you're up to this announcement in about ten

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Speaker 1: minutes to l that's it, the Tafe Center of Excellence

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Speaker 1: being opened at Light Square. Brenda n'connat Schools and Training Minister,

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Speaker 1: my guests federally and here in the studio,