Schools in Wide Bay to miss out on their own trades training centres
21st July, 2008
In a blow to local secondary schools, Kevin Rudd has broken his election promise to put a trades training centre in every Australian secondary school, the Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss said today. Mr Truss said because the funding offered to each school was so limited, schools will be required to cluster to build anything that resembled a trades training ‘centre’.
“This means that there won’t be a trades training centre in every school in Wide Bay as Kevin Rudd explicitly promised during the election campaign last year,” Mr Truss said.
“Kevin Rudd promised a trades training centre in 2650 schools and yet after eight months, his Government has announced funding for centres in only 34 schools (1.3 per cent).
“The funding on offer is so paltry that it could never create anything that resembles a specialised ‘centre’.”
Mr Truss said that the former Coalition Government spent $24 million on average on each of the Australian Technical Colleges it built, while the Rudd Government was offering each school an average of just $900,000 over 10 years to build a ‘centre’.
“This policy was just a political trick that won’t do anything to encourage more apprentices or address the skills crisis,” Mr Truss said.
“The Rudd Government’s idea of creating a trades training centre is to turn up at each school with a new sign to rename the metalwork room the metalwork ‘centre’.
“To provide proper trades training, local communities need dedicated, properly funded Australian Technical Colleges which have scale, local industry input and expert trades teachers.”
Mr Truss said Kevin Rudd had broken his promise to give every upper secondary school student their own computer and now he has failed to deliver on giving every school its own trades training centre.
“Kevin Rudd appeared on our television screens night after night, promising an education revolution but it’s now clear it is just some signs and a few stunts,” Mr Truss said.
