Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Ministers statements: STEM employment initiatives

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (14:34): Well, I think members of the house are aware that this week is National Science Week, and I am pleased to advise the house of how, through our hundred billion-dollar Big Build transport infrastructure program, we are working hard to support jobs in science, technology and engineering across the state and particularly on how we can support young people and also those already in the workforce to have even more opportunities to work in this critically important area. It is important for us now and into the future.

I want to share with you a couple of examples: in a Victorian first, on the Suburban Rail Loop project we are introducing a traineeship for girls studying STEM subjects. This is for girls in years 11 and 12. They will be doing time at school and also, importantly, time out on the job, which will help them get a pathway into the industry. Our commitment goes to supporting the future work pipeline as well. When we have got the Metro Tunnel, the Suburban Rail Loop, the North East Link and the West Gate Tunnel, we have got to make sure we have got a pipeline of tunnelling workers as well to support that activity. That is why we have opened the tunnelling centre of excellence, which is also an Australian-first facility, and it is already training up to 5000 students a year to support that future activity in the important engineering and science sector.

As I said, it is an opportunity in National Science Week to support training in science and engineering, getting young people into the workforce. And these are young people – they will not have to fake their CV in the future. They will not have to go and falsely impersonate professors around the place. They will have real qualifications – real qualifications – thanks to the Andrews Labor government.