June 19, 2019
VERTO chief executive, Ron Maxwell, today welcomed the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s commitment to apprenticeships and training in the 2019-2020 Federal Budget.
Mr. Maxwell said VERTO has been continually calling for renewed investment into the vocational education and training sector (VET), and stimulus measures to boost dwindling apprenticeship and traineeship numbers.
“We welcome the NSW Government’s commitment to creating 250,000 new jobs over the next four years” Mr. Maxwell said.
“I am also pleased to see the NSW Government commit to $71 million over four years to fund its commitment of 100,000 additional free TAFE and VET courses.
“Of these 100,000 places, 70,000 will be for traineeships and 30,000 for mature aged people re-entering the workforce,” Mr. Maxwell said.
This means that over four years, the NSW Government will provide a total of 700,000 free TAFE and VET courses.
Mr. Maxwell said he was also pleased to see the NSW Government will fund two pre-existing high schools to become specialist vocational education schools in Western Sydney and the North Coast. Each school will offer training in the skills most needed by local employers.
“We need to be doing a better job of supporting high school aged people who are interested in undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship, and creating more specialist vocational education schools supports this,” Mr. Maxwell said.
