Press Conference - Sydney

STEVE WHAN, NSW MINISTER FOR SKILLS, TAFE AND TERTIARY EDUCATION: Welcome everyone to TAFE Meadowbank and to the IAT Digital, soon to be Centre of Excellence Digital. Can I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land that we're on? Can I also acknowledge most importantly the federal minister who's joining us today, Andrew Giles, and also Jerome Laxale, local member, and Councillor Lyndal Howison, who's joined us as well from the local council. Can I acknowledge our partners that are here today, Macquarie University, UTS is also a partner, and of course, Tiffany Wright from Microsoft who's joined us here, and everybody else who's been involved in the IAT Digital today.

Today's announcement is a really exciting announcement. The IAT Digital, which has been going now for a few years, it's educated over 490,000 people with digital skills. It's been an incredible success, and I'm really excited that today we're announcing a partnership with the Federal Government to turn the IAT Digital into a Centre of Excellence, which will expand its course offerings. We're looking at more microskills and more short courses to enhance the ability of Australian workforce in the digital area. That'll mean that we are adopting the sort of principles that go with Centres of Excellence, which means that we'll be developing these skills here in New South Wales for New South Wales people but also sharing with the rest of Australia to make sure that the Australian workforce is well equipped to tackle things like cyber-attacks. And here we are today actually in front of our scenario where we have teams of people who come in, and some of them are trying to shut down the city behind us, to shut down the services, the water and the sewage and the trains and the airports, and others are trying to prevent them from shutting down those services. So, that's one of the things that we're doing here.

We've also got the Microsoft Datacentre Academy here. We have people who are developing skills in areas like artificial intelligence. We've got short courses that are available for everyone right throughout the workforce so they can be familiar with what AI can do, what its potential is for their area, and how they can actually use it in their day-to-day work. So this is a very exciting initiative. I'm thrilled that the Federal Government, Minister Giles, are here with us today, $5.5 million each, boosting this centre and boosting the skills that we've got to offer for Australians and New South Wales people for the future. So I'll hand over to Minister Giles.

ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Thanks very much, Steve. It is really great to be here with you, to continue to build on the strong partnership we have between the Albanese Government and the Minns Government when it comes to skilling Australians and people in New South Wales in particular for the future of work. I'm also thrilled to be with my great friend, Jerome Laxale, the Member for Bennelong, and Councillor Lyndal Howison from the City of Ryde. Thanks very much for having us in your part of the world. I'll go through the acknowledgements, because they are significant. TAFE New South Wales, Chloe, it's great to be here once more. Macquarie University and also UTS, Microsoft, who are a fundamental partner in this endeavour, and of course, the Jobs and Skills Council, Future Skills Organisation, for the work that they do.

I just want to build on a couple of the comments that Steve has made, which go to the significance of this $11 million investment shared equally between the Commonwealth and the Minns Government here. This is about recognising a couple of facts. One is that the world of work is rapidly changing, and we believe strongly that we've got to support Australians to gain the skills to continue to be active and thrive in that changing world of work. No more so is that the case than when it comes to AI. We know that nearly nine in 10 office workers are regularly using AI technologies in their daily work. Our challenge is to ensure that they are using it safely and effectively. And we’ve seen here, in what has already been underway for some time, a model for how we can develop skills to support people to safely navigate this changing world of technology at work on their terms and generate more productivity across the economy.

Building on the great success of the IAT here has really been a call to arms for the Centres of Excellence that we're rolling out more broadly. Today is the 17th TAFE Centre of Excellence, 17 partnerships between TAFEs, between universities, and between industry to ensure that not only are we developing the skills of today, but ensuring that the skills of tomorrow will be available to Australian workers. The scenario behind us illustrates exactly what we're doing here, delivering cutting-edge courses, short courses, and microcredentials in cyber security and AI to ensure that the digital capacities of people in New South Wales, and indeed more broadly around Australia, can keep pace with technology, and every Australian can continue to get the skills they want to do all of the jobs we need.

JOURNALIST: Maybe one for Minister Giles. How important is investing in the digital skills economy for Australia's economy in the future?

GILES: It's fundamentally important. The world of work is changing incredibly quickly, and this Centre of Excellence is all about recognising that. Too often when we've looked at skilling changes, we've looked at the complex part of formal qualifications, ensuring that training packages that ensure that our electricians, our nurses, our carpenters have the skills that are fit-for-purpose. What we need to recognise with the digital transformation, particularly through AI, is that while that is important, it's not meeting the changing and dynamic needs of workplaces today. So microcredentials and short courses are really where it's at, and the engagement here with industry and also with our higher education partners are enabling us to have the dynamism and the flexibility that workforce demands today, that employers are looking for, and increasingly that Australian workers are seeing a need for as they go about their work.

JOURNALIST: How do you think we stack up compared to other countries around the world?

GILES: Look, we can always do better. But I think the infrastructure that we have, the National Skills Agreement that brings together all Australian governments in shared purpose, the fact that we've got Jobs and Skills Australia, which is a fantastic national resource, that tells us so much about what's happening in the world of work and the demand for labour. And organisations like Future Skills Organisation, which bring together an industry-led approach to skilling the future – I think we're really well placed, but we cannot be complacent. We know that Australians are using AI, for example, but often in a way that's unstructured, where often issues of safety or reliability are not being focused on. So making sure that we're doing absolutely everything we can do not just to boost productivity but ensure that Australian workers feel that they've got a stake in this game is an imperative for our Government. I know it's an imperative for the Minns Government too.

ENDS