TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Regional Development) (12:16): Last week I launched the second annual Victorian skills plan. It reinforces that Victoria continues to set the benchmark for skills and training in Australia. We are the national leaders in reform. We are building and uniting the system. We introduced free TAFE in 2019, and now we are in an era where power and purpose of vocational education and training are front and centre.
The annual skills plan is critical to ensuring that we have a strong, qualified and proud workforce now and into the future. The plan ensures that we are delivering what is right and what is needed. It has informed outstanding policy decisions to support many Victorians, such as introducing scholarships for nurses, midwives and secondary school teachers and widening the eligibility for free TAFE, and is a driving force behind the 10-year Clean Economy Workforce Development Strategy 2023–2033. The plan clearly states that over the next three years we will need 352,000 new workers. It highlights the skills needed and the jobs that will be created by the Allan Labor government. It is a plan for all of Victoria. From Wodonga to the Wimmera, regional skills taskforces have played a critical role in ensuring the needs of the regions are being implemented.
This plan is a call to action for everyone so that it can beat the path to innovation, inclusion, cutting-edge technology and of course applied research. It ensures our TAFEs, registered training organisations, Learn Locals, universities, employers and industry work together. This will lead to true parity between vocational education and training, the TAFE sector and of course the university sector. Every Victorian has the right to access quality high-skilled training in this state, and it is this government that is doing exactly that.