Western Sydney Centre of Excellence

Subjects: TAFE, Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, Adult Learner’s Week, vocational education, A Future Made in Australia

E&OE Transcript

MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY AND MEMBER FOR MCMAHON CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks for coming, everyone. Western Sydney is the industrial powerhouse in many ways of NSW. It's a great pleasure to represent the biggest industrial estate in the southern hemisphere in the seat of McMahon. So, I'm here with my friends and colleagues, particularly the federal level, Andrew Giles and Anne Stanley, to welcome this big investment by the Albanese Government and the Minns Government together to make sure that Wetherill Park is at the centre of a Future Made in Australia.

There's lots of jobs to be created in Australia's manufacturing future, but we've got to make sure Australians of all ages are invested in to get the skills they need to capture those jobs and that we can harness that opportunity for Australia and for this part of the world where I grew up and live and represent. So, I'm delighted to welcome the Premier here today. It's always an honour to have the Premier in our community, particularly when he's bringing a big investment, Chris.

NSW PREMIER CHRIS MINNS: Thanks, Chriso. It's great to be here in Wetherill Park. I was just telling my colleagues earlier, actually, this week is Adult Learning Week, which is a fantastic thing to celebrate and an important acknowledgement that funding to vocational education is absolutely crucial for the NSW economy.

We're really pleased to announce this $53 million investment into vocational education into Western Sydney for the skills and jobs of the future. 50/50 funding with the Commonwealth. We love to see it and it's a real acknowledgement from the Albanese Government that they're thinking about the future and how we can work more closely with industry to ensure that we've got jobs and skills for a changing economy. If you look at the way the NSW economy is expected to grow in the years ahead, we've got enormous opportunities for new jobs in manufacturing, particularly in Western Sydney.

The area that we've been let down over the last 10 years is not having enough education or training centres on-site to make sure that those opportunities are in place. And if you speak to people like Lily and Kate, getting a skill at a TAFE like this one in Wetherill Park can literally change your life. It's a credential that you have with you for the rest of your life. You can travel with it. It gives you the skills and credentials to walk into a job anywhere in the state and the country. And we want to see more young people take up these important and exciting opportunities.

I was talking to Stuart, who's been working in TAFE for a very long time. One of those old school TAFE teachers that's probably responsible for thousands of people starting their own businesses, entering the workforce with highly specialised skills in a modern economy. And he said to us, all of us, just a moment ago, there's a job out there for everybody, but you just have to find the skill and the credential to get behind you.

And that's what this investment's all about. We want to give a big, bold offer to year 11 and 12 students right across NSW to consider a trade. A trade certificate from a NSW TAFE can change your life, give you access to modern machinery, and ensure that any employer in the entire country will employ you just like that. And it's something that no one can ever take off you. It's a wonderful investment in yourself. And I'm going to pass over to Andrew Giles, the Federal Minister.

MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING ANDREW GILES: Yeah, thanks very much, Premier. I'm so thrilled to be here in the heart of the manufacturing centre of Western Sydney to make a couple of really simple points. The first one is this. It's so important that we support public TAFE, because we need to tell Australians, young and old, that nearly half of the jobs of the future require vocational qualifications. And so many of them rest on governments working together to support TAFE. And this partnership, this $53 million investment in establishing this centre for advanced manufacturing right here, is about doing just that. It's about enabling more Australians to be part of a Future Made in Australia, obtaining the qualifications the premier was just talking about, a passport to a good job and a good life. This is about a bold vision of our national future that's clearly anchored in communities just like this one.

And I don't think we're going to get a better set of evidence for that from the young women that we've had the pleasure of meeting today. Lillian Tate, who you'll be hearing from shortly, who can talk about what it means for them to be involved in doing an apprenticeship through TAFE NSW. Building the skills to really see their future wrapped up in the future that’s Made in Australia. I'm really pleased to be working closely with the Minns Government. This is all about partnerships. I'm really pleased to pass over to Steve, who will say a little bit more.

NSW MINISTER FOR SKILLS, TAFE AND TERTIARY EDUCATION STEVE WHAN: Thank you. It's really exciting to be at the first of our three manufacturing Centre’s of Excellence, which the Minns Government and the Albanese government will be delivering together in NSW.

What's really important about this is we're using our fabulous base of TAFE NSW. We're working with universities and with industry. And we'll be developing and delivering courses which respond as quickly as the industry develops. So, we'll have short courses, micro-skills, we'll have degrees, sorry, apprenticeships in conjunction with universities as well, which will enable our learners to move as fast as the industry does. So, those micro-skills, those short credentials, they can evolve very quickly to meet the needs of advanced manufacturing in our country and in NSW, particularly giving us the jobs for the future. And I'm handing over now to Brad.

AMWU NSW ACTING STATE SECRETARY BRAD PIDGEON: Yeah, thank you, Minister. On behalf of our members of the AMW and manufacturing workers much broadly, we welcome today's announcement. It's been a long time coming, but what this shows is both state and federal governments are committed towards Australia's future. A Future Made in Australia, where domestic manufacturing should be front and centre of what we do as a nation.

For far too long, we've seen our jobs offshored. For far too long we've seen privatisation of skills and training which has led to skill shortages over the past 12, 15 years. Today is just one of many exciting announcements which at the AMW we've welcomed and we want to see continually grow. We look forward to seeing our members thrive, not just survive, and also build things in Australia. We don't just dig and ship things, we actually build things with our hands, and it starts with places like this. TAFE is an institution of society and it should be one that should be well funded, well-resourced and provide opportunities for manufacturing workers. So, I commend the efforts of both the state and federal governments for taking on a bold plan to make sure that we build things here in Australia.