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Transcript
TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON DR BRENDAN NELSON MP
BRISBANE
Thursday 11th December 2003
400,000th NEW APPRENTICE
In the last year the number of apprentices in Australia has increased another 10%. We’ve now got 407,900 apprenticeships and trainees the length and breadth of Australia. And 59,500 of them are here in Queensland. And of those just over half, in fact 54% are under the age of 25. It’s also important, a lot of people don’t realise that we had 12,500 people who started apprenticeships whilst they were still at school last year, and one of the things we really want to ramp up are financial incentives for people like John and Strathpine Toyota, to take on young people as apprentices whilst they’re still at school and continue that.
One of the other things that we’ve done, is we’ve crossed the 400,000 mark in the last quarter, from the end of June to the end of September. I said to my staff and my Department, I said “Look, I think we need to celebrate the stunning success”. And it’s a partnership between industry, between large employers, medium and small ones, and Government, and Matthew is a member of that group that took it from 396,000 to 407,000 and the automotive industry is one of the most important industries in this country. Not just economically but also socially and culturally. So I thought, well the thing to do is to see that we focus and recognise on one of our automotive apprentices. And Peter was telling me about Strathpine Toyota and I said OK, well let’s head off to Strathpine. So we found Matthew, to whom we’re going to present the Golden Spanner. I’ve got something else coming for you, but I couldn’t get it here in time. I know you’d rather be driving a Camry or an Avalon, but I got Mark Skaife to sign a framed autographed poster in front of their V8 Supercar for you, which will be arriving very shortly. I know you’ll put it in the back personally, but we’ve got that coming for you as well. When we talked about what we might give you we thought that a golden spanner would be alright, but I said “hey guys, if I was 18 I know what else I’d really like as well”. I’m sure John will pop up a car though. Toyota provides, in fact the most generous automotive engineering company in this country in terms of cars for charitable purposes and stuff like that. I meet them everywhere.
And the last thing that I’d like to reinforce, to which Peter alluded to. I look after $21 billion of your money, hard earned money that you work here every day to earn. It goes to universities, to apprenticeships, and training, and TAFE, and schools and science, innovation, a whole range of things. But one of the things that I think is wrong with our society, which – I think those of us that profess to lead have contributed to over the last 30 years - I think we’ve created a culture where young people are often made to feel that if they don’t get an outstanding OP, get a university education, a top of the range Landcruiser and all the material trappings of life they’re made to feel that maybe they’re not as good as someone who has. And one thing that is critically important, is we have to make sure that we as parents, and we who profess to lead but who often, I think, are led by public opinion, we need to make sure that every young person in this country knows that they are really highly valued, whether they go to university or they go to TAFE or they go to private training, whether they do an apprenticeship, or for some young kid just getting a job is a huge achievement.
We will only ever be as good as the apprentices that we can train and the technicians that we’re able to provide for our nation, as much as we are people that are at the front end of university research. We should not ever allow any person to feel that they are doing something that isn’t as good, because it doesn’t happen to be associated with university life. And we pay a very high price for this. We’ve got amongst the highest university drop out rates in the world, and as you know we’ve got shortages in critically important industries, including the automotive industry.
One of the messages that I keep putting across to parents, who are a big part of the problem – my son is starting an apprenticeship next year you’ll be very assured to know – I keep saying to parents, don’t force your kids to be what they’re not, your kids work it out long before we do, what they really want to do in their hearts. A lot of our kids, boys and girls, feel passionate about cars and they shouldn’t be forced to go and do something they don’t want to do, when they’d really like to be involved in the automotive and other industries.
And the other message that I think is really important is that teachers and career counsellors, for all their goodwill and hard work, I think too often they’re putting pressure on young people to go to university and not even consider fantastic careers, whether it’s in automotive or horticulture, in computer technology, or hospitality or anything else.
Thank you.
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