Interview with Patrick Doran and Ravyn Bell - Sea FM Tasmania

PATRICK DORAN, HOST: We have Minister Giles who's joining us on the phone right now. He's the Minister for Skills and Training, and he's actually headed to Burnie very shortly. We're catching him right before he jumps on his flight. Now, what brings you to Burnie, Minister Giles?

ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: I'm really excited to be heading back to Burnie, I think for the fourth time in the last year or so, but the first time since my great mate, Anne Urquhart, was elected to the lower house in Braddon with such an astonishing margin.

DORAN: So what brings you to Burnie for the fourth time, then?

GILES: I'm going to meet with some TAFE students, some of the 9,000, Tasmanian Free TAFE students in the middle of their courses. I want to catch up with some students at the UTAS campus as well, to talk about the 20 per cent debt relief and what a difference it's making to their lives. I'm also going to catch up with the local plumbing business to meet with staff and their apprentices as well, and I'm really excited about seeing a mural that they've created, which is about celebrating, recognising and encouraging more women to get into traditionally male-dominated trades. So there's a bit going on and I'm obviously always excited to be chatting with you guys. Very sorry I'm not in the studio today, though.

DORAN: That's okay.

RAVYN BELL, HOST: That's all right. So this is really exciting with the Free TAFE. What kind of courses are you finding are the most popular?

GILES: What's really interesting is that Free TAFE isn't just about opening the door to education, it's about tailoring that Free TAFE option to where there are good jobs. So what looks, the courses in Tassie, for example, look a bit different than the ones that are on offer and are taken up by people in my part of Melbourne. So, you know, agriculture is very popular in Tassie, you won't be surprised to hear, but also community support, early childhood education and care, nursing and construction too, to build those houses. So it's that range of courses, a really diverse range, which has been really appealing to young and indeed not so young Tasmanians. I was really struck by the fact that I think around 800 of the enrolments in Tassie have been from people over 55, people upskilling or reskilling who've been in the workforce for a while to stay active, to maybe follow a career they've always been passionate about.

BELL: Wow.

DORAN: That's something that my dad actually did. He started a uni degree when he was like 20 and then he finished it when he was like 60. So he did that. But then alongside that, he actually started a few TAFE courses in his later years, in his 50s, and he ended up upskilling the same, like you're talking about. And he found it really beneficial for the jobs that he was doing.

GILES: I'm really keen to talk about lifelong learning. I think too often people think about doing a course straight after school, whether it's at TAFE, whether it's at uni, and that being the thing that sets themselves up for life. We know that the world of work is changing really rapidly. So we want to make sure that Tasmanians and indeed Australians around the country have all the support they have to make sure they can fulfil their potential and also follow their dreams because I think most of us know what we think about doing changes a bit. I just heard the segment before where people were talking about what they wanted to be as a young person, a celebrity chef, I obviously wanted to play football for Carlton and that dream was never going to happen.

DORAN: Can you learn that at TAFE?

GILES: Well, watching a couple of games this season, I have wondered about what degree of, anyway –

DORAN: I'm okay, you can say that. I follow Lions.

GILES: I'm always hopeful and always keen to support the team, but I guess the point I'm making is that what we might think about doing at 15, 16, 17, or even in our 20s or 30s, may not be what sustains us through our adult lives. And I think for us in Government, things like Free TAFE, things like making sure that we're dealing with other barriers, like making available Paid Prac, we just want to make sure that we're looking at all the barriers that have been holding Australians and Tasmanians back from getting skills they want to do really important jobs and breaking down those barriers.

DORAN: Yeah, because it's no longer like it was back in the 60s, 70s and 80s where you have a job, a career, and that's it for 40 years. Everybody's changing jobs every couple of years, so I think it's really important to have that option to upskill when you do need to enter into a different part of the workforce.

GILES: Yeah, that's exactly right. So, you know, while we do obviously focus on young people and giving them all of the opportunities to make choices that are consistent with their ambitions and aspirations, that's not the end of the story, far from it. We want to make sure that people at all stages of life can access skills and training to fulfil their potential and to realise their dreams.

BELL: Absolutely. And I think it's fantastic that if someone wakes up one day and they think, ‘man, I hate my job,’ they can actually do something about that. They can actually pave the way to a different career because all of those barriers are coming down, which is fantastic.

GILES: I'm really excited. And one of the things I love about the job that I have is being able to listen to people, the diversity of their stories, their backgrounds and their aspirations, and to think about how we can do better. And I just think that Free TAFE has been an incredible success in that regard. So many people have had a door open that was shut to them for too long. And to see that sense of excitement about what they’re going to do for themselves, but also for their communities too, is just really rewarding.

BELL: Incredible.

DORAN: Well, we'll have to leave it there, Minister Giles, but have a wonderful trip. Hopefully the plane ride is pretty cruisy and enjoy your time in Burnie and we look forward to catching up, hopefully in the too distant future.

GILES: Yeah, I hope so too. Look, Anne Urquhart's always a very good host and hopefully I'll be invited back after this trip and hopefully we can see each other face to face. Great to be talking to you Paddy and Raven.