❓ A member of parliament questions the Minister for Training and Workforce Development about the cancellation of five TAFE trade courses, the lack of uptake of interstate training offers, and the replacement of WA lecturers with eastern states' trainers. The Minister defends the decision based on low student numbers.
AnsweredQoN 809Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TAFE — TRADE STUDIES
809. Mr F.M. LOGAN to the Minister for
Training and Workforce Development:
I draw the minister's
attention to the questions I have raised with her numerous times in this house
and in the Legislative Council about why and how the minister has killed off
five trade studies.
(1) Why have no
employers or their apprentices from the five smaller trade subjects taken up
the minister's supposedly generous offer of flying to Queensland or New
South Wales to complete their trade studies?
(2) Given that
the minister's previous answers indicate that now two interstate
registered training organisations are contracted to deliver training in Western
Australia, which of these five trade courses are they delivering?
(3) Why has the
minister sacked the WA lecturers of these courses only to now fly in eastern
states' trainers to replace them?
809. Mr F.M. LOGAN to the Minister for
Training and Workforce Development:
I draw the minister's
attention to the questions I have raised with her numerous times in this house
and in the Legislative Council about why and how the minister has killed off
five trade studies.
(1) Why have no
employers or their apprentices from the five smaller trade subjects taken up
the minister's supposedly generous offer of flying to Queensland or New
South Wales to complete their trade studies?
(2) Given that
the minister's previous answers indicate that now two interstate
registered training organisations are contracted to deliver training in Western
Australia, which of these five trade courses are they delivering?
(3) Why has the
minister sacked the WA lecturers of these courses only to now fly in eastern
states' trainers to replace them?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
member for the question.
(1)–(3) It
is a very specific question and I could have probably furnished the member with
a more comprehensive answer had he given me some notice of the question.
However, I put it to the member for Cockburn that the reason the five courses
were cancelled was that we did not have a lot of students for them. The fact
that the students are not taking up our offer to avail themselves of the
training in other jurisdictions is more because there is not an interest in
being trained in those areas. We are not going to keep employing lecturers to
deliver training that students do not want to receive. If the students do not
want to receive the training and we are not having the numbers front up for the
courses, and if they do not want to go to other jurisdictions to avail
themselves of the courses there, we will not keep running them. We run
thousands of courses right across the state and five of them have dropped off
due to a lack of numbers. We are not going to keep employing lecturers to
deliver lectures to empty classrooms.
member for the question.
(1)–(3) It
is a very specific question and I could have probably furnished the member with
a more comprehensive answer had he given me some notice of the question.
However, I put it to the member for Cockburn that the reason the five courses
were cancelled was that we did not have a lot of students for them. The fact
that the students are not taking up our offer to avail themselves of the
training in other jurisdictions is more because there is not an interest in
being trained in those areas. We are not going to keep employing lecturers to
deliver training that students do not want to receive. If the students do not
want to receive the training and we are not having the numbers front up for the
courses, and if they do not want to go to other jurisdictions to avail
themselves of the courses there, we will not keep running them. We run
thousands of courses right across the state and five of them have dropped off
due to a lack of numbers. We are not going to keep employing lecturers to
deliver lectures to empty classrooms.
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