Radio interview - ABC Regional Drive South Australia and Broken Hill
NARELLE GRAHAM, HOST: I sang it to you. Do you remember it? 1, 3, double O, 6, triple 5, O, 6. It's the Reading Writing Hotline, and it was recently added to the National Film and Sound Archive as one of the 2026 Sounds of Australia. It is still in service, 4,000 calls a year. And reading and writing is considered one of the foundation skills for all of us. These days, digital skills – I didn't realise until the other day, but digital skills has also been added to those foundation skills now. And there are free courses in regional South Australia and Broken Hill to help people improve those skills. Andrew Giles is the Federal Minister for Skills and Training. Minister, good afternoon.
ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Glad to be talking with you and your listeners, Narelle.
GRAHAM: Catchy tune, no doubt about it. What happens when someone calls the Reading Writing Hotline these days?
GILES: Yeah, look, it is a catchy tune, and I hope you will forgive me for not joining you and singing it –
GRAHAM: Oh, Minister.
GILES: I think you did a much better job than I did, and I want to make sure more people call it, not fewer. Look, if you call the line – as I think you just said, 4,000 people have done over the last year – anyone gets some free advice and information and have the chance to speak to experts who, I guess most importantly, listen to the caller and make sure then that they can be connected to the right support.
Because it's a pretty hard thing to do to put up your hand and say, ‘look, I need a bit of help here.’ And that's what this is all about, making it easier for people to say, ‘look, for whatever reason I didn't get the support I needed to build these skills at an earlier stage in my life.’ And what we want to do through this hotline and all the other services the Australian Government provides across regional South Australia and Broken Hill, amongst other places, is to make it easier for people to access those literacy and numeracy skills. But, as you just said, increasingly digital literacy skills because that's such a part not just being able to find a job, but being able to effectively participate in social and community life too.
GRAHAM: I want to point out that Kristen in the Riverland got it from my singing, so that's good to know. If you ring the Reading Writing Hotline these days, can they also assist with digital skills?
GILES: They can direct you, the focus is obviously doing what it says on the tin. But what they can do is connect people to a foundation skills class, perhaps at a TAFE, at a place like TAFE SA Port Augusta, or Coober Pedy or obviously New South Wales TAFE Broken Hill, and other providers who can assist people not just with those traditional literacy and numeracy skills but through the broader range. The Australian Government's got a program called Skills for Education and Employment, which we've redesigned, investing $740 million so that any Australian aged 15 or over can access free language, literacy, numeracy, or digital skills training, as long as they're 15 or over.
GRAHAM: Okay. So, we want to find out a little bit more about that. And if anybody is involved in those particular programs or looking for them, now is the chance for you to ask some questions about those courses. Federal Minister for Skills and Training Andrew Giles is on your radio with me, Narelle Graham, this afternoon. Minister, just some staggering stats that were sent through from your office. So, OECD says three million working Australians have low literacy and numeracy skills. And from the latest data – this is quite old, unfortunately, but it's the best we've got so we'll use it, 2011 – found that 43.7 per cent of people find reading and writing challenging. Does that indicate to you the school system is failing?
GILES: Not all these people are young, of course, but it shows that we, collectively, have not supported people to get the skills, the competencies that they want to have and increasingly need – not just for work, but for life. And that's why it's so important, firstly, to see the Reading Writing Hotline jingle recognised as a way to break down some of the barriers that have prevented people from getting their skills.
But it's really important that, as a Government, that we are really trying to make it as easy as possible for people to gain those skills. Again, whether it's a traditional challenge with reading or writing that, perhaps school didn't work out for that person, or whether it's increasingly older Australians wanting to feel more confident in the digital environment or in engaging with artificial intelligence too. So what we’re trying to say is, we want to have a no wrong door approach for anyone to be able to put their hand up and get the help they need to get the skills they want to participate in the workforce and in life.
GRAHAM: In relation to the Federal Government-backed programs that are on offer, and there's a few of them, so I want to start with SEE, which is Skills for Education and Employment. Are those courses done at TAFE in regional South Australia and Broken Hill?
GILES: They are. So, you can go through TAFE New South Wales Broken Hill, and in places like Whyalla, Port Augusta TAFE SA campuses. There are some community providers also the program perhaps in less formal settings as well.
GRAHAM: And are they popular? Do they get booked out, those types of courses?
[Audio skip]
GRAHAM: …employment course.
GILES: I feel I'm very lucky. I've got a job that's all about skilling Australians, making sure that everyone gets every chance to fill their potential and make their contribution. But the classrooms I love to be in are these SEE classrooms.
Because you see someone really having taken a brave step to return to an educational setting, often after decades of not being in it, and often not having had great experiences in it, finally having those lightbulb moments. Really engaged and caring teachers who want to understand what the barriers have been. And really deliver practical engagement, whether it's in developing your language skills, whether it's about some practical ways to build up your numeracy that's connected to everyday tasks, and we’re just really mindful of the fact that often for a lot of people, the challenge is the stigma of saying, ‘look, I do need help.’ And the sensitivity that I see in these classrooms towards that – this is not about anyone feeling that they're to blame. It's about us as a society saying it's just not acceptable that three million Australians don't have the skills we should have helped them to get, and making it as easy as possible right around the country for people to get that support.
GRAHAM: Do many other countries put this amount of effort in?
GILES: I think we are an outlier there and I think we've recognised that we haven't done as well as we should have. So we do look at, obviously, the international examples – and you said that our data is a bit out of date. We’re participating now in a survey that is underway just to do a bit of a health check. Because, working out what Australians were like in 2011, it's the best guide we have but it's not really satisfactory to make decisions for 2026 and into the future. And particularly now when so many jobs demand post-high school qualifications and where so much of community life and engagement with government requires digital skills. So, we know we've got to really hurry if we are to make sure that Australians aren't locked out of living the life that they want to live. And that's obviously particularly true the further you get from the centres of Melbourne and Sydney.
GRAHAM: Federal Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, on your radio this afternoon. How do you then measure the success of these programs?
GILES: There's two ways. One is getting the feedback from the participants who tell some fantastic stories of their reconnection to education, their sense of confidence. And often those stories that mean someone who came in having had a terrible experience at school who now feels equipped to move on to study a Certificate III at TAFE. So, those stories really are the things that make me feel good. What I want to be able to do is to track what's going on over time and to make sure that every Australian has every opportunity to feel that they can participate fully in community. That's the challenge here.
GRAHAM: One of the other options for people are now the apprenticeship programs that have – I think they were introduced last year, was it July of 2025? So, there are incentives for new apprentices in housing and construction. There's incentives that go to the apprentices, incentives that also go to the employer that takes them on. Is it too early to say that there's a high rate of completion or what the rate of completion of those is, those apprenticeship?
GILES: It's too early because we're mostly talking about four-year or sometimes three-year journeys. But what we can say is that this program, what we call the Key Apprenticeship Program, has seen a really uptake. And it's built on a program that was really focused on the energy sector. And we saw very encouraging retention numbers there.
For a long time, we haven't seen the completion rates in apprenticeships that we'd like to see. We've got to work hard to turn that around. But we also, frankly, just need more people to be starting apprenticeships. If we're going to build those houses for Australians; if we're going to take advantage of the great opportunities around a future made in Australia, that I know is particularly important in South Australia; if we're going to take advantage of the opportunities in net zero, apprenticeship pathways are so important. So, incentivising an employer, particularly a small business, to take on an apprentice; and incentivising a young person to get into and get through an apprenticeship is absolutely critical.
And the way that we've structured this payment for the apprentice – it's $10,000 but that's not in one hit. It's at various stages over the life of the apprenticeship, starting at six months – recognising that an apprenticeship wage is not that high, generally, cost of living pressures bite, the cost of tools. So, it's just that little bit of extra money that will help keep someone going, to make sure not only that they start but they get the support they need to get to the end.
GRAHAM: Is there anything to target mature age apprentices? People who might be not straight out of school but would be thinking, ‘do you know what? I wish I'd done this five, 10, 15 years ago.’
GILES: Increasingly, people are starting their apprenticeships later. The average age is well into the 20’s now – older for women who undertake apprenticeships So, we do want to say to people that the door should never be shut. One of the reasons that people put off is obviously going back to an apprenticeship wage can be a challenge if you've got a mortgage, if you've got the responsibilities that come with family life in particular. And I don't pretend that the $10,000 payment will solve that on itself, but it's a commitment of the Australian Government to say that if you are willing to take this on, we will back you.
GRAHAM: And there's also Free TAFE on offer. Is Free TAFE available on courses in regional areas of South Australia and also Broken Hill?
GILES: Definitely. So Free TAFE is a partnership between the Albanese Government and every state and territory. Last year, we passed a law in the Federal Parliament to make it a permanent feature of the Australian training system, with 100,000 places, at least 100,000 places, every year.
The way we offer courses is a discussion between the governments. So, you'd imagine that obviously in different states there would be a slightly different need for particular courses. That's a process that's underway right now. But we've seen with Free TAFE a particularly strong impact in regional areas. The take-up has been higher in the regions proportionately than in the cities, and that's something that I'm really pleased to see.
And particularly to see – again, you touched on people a bit older – a lot of older people are jumping at the chance. I've had some fantastic conversations with particularly people starting to become an enrolled nurse who've told me time and time again that it was what they wanted to do when they were finishing school. It was out of reach. But now, thanks to Free TAFE, they can finally do the job they always wanted to.
GRAHAM: So, can we expect in the Budget that's going to be very shortly that there will be more of a focus even on free and helpful education?
GILES: I'll get in a lot of trouble if I speculate what's in the Budget, Narelle, so I'll stay right away from that one.
GRAHAM: You're no fun. No fair enough I understand, but stay tuned.
GILES: Stay tuned, indeed. I guess what I can say is, right across our approach in Government has been about delivering cost of living relief in the moment while ensuring that we build for the future. Now that's, I think, what Free TAFE is really all about. It's cost of living relief by taking away the disincentive of having to pay those tuition fees while setting someone up for their future in careers which are really all about building our future.
GRAHAM: Minister, thank you. Federal Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles.
ENDS