Subjects: P-TECH pilot launch in Burnie; Higher education reform
EO&E………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
BRIAN CARLTON:
Mister Birmingham good morning.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Good morning, Brian and good morning to your listeners.
CARLTON:
How’re you going? How was your flight in to Burnie this morning?
BIRMINGHAM:
All good, all good. It’s very nice to be here, a great sunny day, nice blue skies, I wish I could stay longer.
CARLTON:
Now everybody says that. It’s a gorgeous part of the world, believe me, to the extent that I’m not going back ever, not even close to going back. Now tell me, what have you been up to in Burnie this morning? There’s a new thing called P-TECH, – Pathways in Technology programme, it’s a STEM programme, how’s that working and how’s Burnie involved?
BIRMINGHAM:
Well I’m on my way right now to the Parklands high school with Brett Whiteley where we will be announcing that the Parklands high school and Burnie high school will be two of our pilot sites for the Pathways in Technology programme which is really about trying to practically link schools with local businesses so that students get a better understanding of the science, technology, engineering and maths skills they need to be able to succeed, not just at school, but ultimately to get a job in the workforce in the local community and what we do through this programme, we’ve got two sites already up and running, one in Geelong and one in Ballarat, is provide a structural framework where from year 9 or 10 onwards the school partners with local businesses, in this case Elphinstone, the William Adams Group and manufacturers Jayben Australia and Maltec Engineering who will provide the practical mentoring, work experience opportunities, in the classroom teaching structure around what types of job opportunities there are that they have and the STEM skills that they will need to be able to succeed there and ultimately that is structured not just through those final years of school but with a clear pathway into a post-school qualification of Diploma level or similar.
CARLTON:
Okay, one of the criticisms, Simon, I keep hearing from Tasmanians of long standing is we tend to educate our kids really well then there’s no capacity for them to use their skills or their training or indeed sometimes their degree here in Tasmania and they have to go to the mainland at least if not sometimes overseas in order to get work. There is though a link isn’t there between kids involved in these kind of programmes actually going on and getting a job with the company who’s been mentoring them over time, that’s a real thing isn’t it, the actual hard job that might flow from this sort of programme?
BIRMINGHAM:
Absolutely, there are a few real benefits that flow from this in terms of the real job outcomes and improved local economic activity. Firstly, it’s that it provides exposure to some of the softer skills that students need to ultimately then succeed in the workforce and the attitudes and commitment, the understanding of working in teams and all of those different attributes as well as of course that focus on those particular STEM skills that engineering roles, that technical roles and frankly, even accounting or marketing roles that students need in the future to succeed, but it also, by really having a practical link between schools and employers, does give the employers confidence to be able to invest in their local community and know that they’ll have the staff and the workforce to be able to succeed and grow their business in the future and so it does a much more effective job from the earliest years of schooling of giving students the knowledge of what to study to succeed in getting a local job and giving employers the understanding that they have a pipeline of future employees in a local area that makes it worth continuing to invest to grow their businesses there.
CARLTON:
Why was Burnie and Parklands High Schools chosen for this pilot programme, Simon? And I guess to what extent are you able to measure its success and how do you measure success with a view to rolling the thing out nationally?
BIRMINGHAM:
As I said there are two pilots we’ve got underway [indistinct] during the course of the election campaign Malcolm Turnbull and I announced that we would extend those two pilot sites to a further twelve pilot sites around the nation as well. Now, Brett Whiteley has been speaking with me for really the last 12 months since Brett first came and he said he thought there was real scope if we ever found additional funding to extend the pilot to undertake one of them here in Burnie so, it’s been local advocacy and lobbying that has brought the programme here to Burnie as well as of course over that 12 month period the opportunity to scrutinise the capabilities here of it working. Now in terms of how we assess if it is successful, the P-TECH model is one that we are adapting from the United States that they have already applied in over 100 locations from an initial site in Brooklyn in New York where they partnered with IBM. We know the model can work, its long term effectiveness, like many things in education, won’t be seen for quite a number of years, but what we’re really trying to do is prove how the model can be applied in local schools, how it can be adapted at low cost thanks to the commitment of time and skills and generosity of local businesses so that then it can be effectively replicated at low or no cost in a number of other sites in the future. We have a partner called Skilling Australia Foundation who’ve been integrally involved in adopting and adapting the US model to the Australian curriculum and school circumstances. So, we’re confident that once we really get the practical framework set up, this is something that should work, that is a logical thing to do to connect schools with larger local employers so that we give students that exposure and that we will be able to replicate it and have schools systems replicate it many more times across the nation in future years.
CARLTON:
I guess the emphasis on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths etcetera – is a focus on an area where we do have a demonstrated weakness nationally I would’ve thought so, targeted wise that’s pretty good. Simon, can we just change gear for a second if I may; one of the issues that’s been consuming much of northern Tasmania for some months now is the, was the planned move of the University of Tasmania campuses at both Burnie and Launceston, the reveal on Friday from the Prime Minister that the $150 million will be forthcoming from the Federal Government, from the Coalition, for that plan. Look, congratulations coming up with the money, it’s effectively removed this as an election issue which is I think how everybody here wanted it, it was just such a no-brainer and an overwhelming majority of people in the state at every strata of society here think this is a good idea so, congratulations for backing that one in and also the extra eight-odd million for the Launceston CBD, there are some very, very happy local aldermen around I can assure you.
BIRMINGHAM:
Well it’s great to hear and look I was delighted to be there on Friday with the Prime Minister to announce that project which we spent a lot of time looking at that was slated for announcement earlier in the campaign, but unfortunately natural events got in the way…
CARLTON:
I was going to say, Simon, you could’ve saved yourself a whole two weeks of grief from me had you done it a little earlier!
BIRMINGHAM:
The weather got in the way as much as anything there sadly, but there’s one really important point between what we’ve announced and the way our policies here will work and what the Labor party has announced. Yes, the funding for the re-location of those campuses and those activities by the University of Tasmania in Launceston and Burnie, but our policy also provides for an expansion of the associate degrees that the University of Tasmania says is central to the success of these campuses, they want to bring around 8,000 additional students into those campuses studying 18 months to 2 year associate degree programmes that are really heavily tied to what the local industry want and our higher education policy provides for that expansion of those associate degrees which the Labor party’s policy does not so, it’s great to have commitment from all sides for us to be bricks and mortar, but of course, we’ve also got to have the right policies in place for students to be able to access the places and I’m confident that our expansion there which gives better, freer, easier pathways for people in to university not necessarily having to do the full 3 year degree which is critical in an economy in a state like Tasmania’s where we’re still building up the levels of educational attainment to have more of those types of pathway programmes available in the future.
CARLTON:
Okay, one thing you are copping a bit of a hard time from, from any number of people, not just the Labor party, but a certain number of independents as well, Jacqui Lambie amongst them, is the criticism that the Coalition is looking at full fee degrees for local students. It’s an issue that is actually causing you some grief out there on the streets, Simon what’s your response to it?
BIRMINGHAM:
So in the budget this year we ruled out proceeding with full fee-deregulation, we guaranteed that at least 80 per cent of all university places in future will continue to operate under fixed fee arrangements as they currently do, that every single student going to university will still be able to access the HECS or HELP loans that they’ve done for 30 years now which are available, meaning students pay fees up front, have no real interest that they pay and only pay their student fees when they earn a decent income. We have been open in saying that for a small number of places, less than 20 per cent, we think there’s some good rationale to have a look at whether we should incentivise our universities to offer flagship programmes where they could identify areas of excellence and innovation that might require them to have a bit more flexibility in what they charge, but in terms of the scare campaign, we can flatly rule out $100,000 degrees, guarantee that more than 80 per cent of students will continue to go to uni under the fixed-price regime, say that we’re offering scope for more pathways for qualifications below the Bachelor level at that Associate Degree level that make it easier for people from different backgrounds to access university and those flagship programmes really are about saying to a university if you want to be the world’s best in robotics or you want to be the world’s best in agriculture, we’re going to back you to develop those types of programmes, recognise they might cost you a bit more to aspire to be that world’s best practice, but that it’s worth doing that however, you’ll only be able to do it with in a fixed loading of your student numbers so that the vast majority still have that certainty when they go off to uni.
CARLTON:
Simon, I appreciate your time this morning. You’re about to head off and do the Burnie reveal, I’ll let you do that. I appreciate your time, thanks, enjoy your brief time in Tasmania, it’s a beautiful place and do come back it’s lovely.
BIRMINGHAM:
Absolutely, I look forward to being back to see the P-TECH in action and the new university campuses opened and the many other wonderful things that we’re committed to doing across the education system.
[ends]