Constituency Question: Craigieburn Secondary College & Mount Ridley College

Ros SPENCE (Yuroke) (11:54:50) — (14 867) My constituency question is to the Minister for Education. When will the Head Start apprenticeships and traineeships initiative be rolled out to Craigieburn Secondary College and Mount Ridley College? I am delighted that both government secondary schools in the Yuroke electorate will be participating in this fantastic program, which will open up a whole range of career opportunities to young people, allowing them to pursue a qualification while ensuring they also complete their secondary education. This complements this government’s work to rescue TAFE, and I know that many students in the Yuroke electorate and their parents will be eager to learn more about when they can benefit from this innovative new program.

Response: 

I am informed as follows:

The Head Start initiative will commence in 2019 and involve 100 government schools across Victoria, delivering an additional 1700 apprenticeships and traineeships over the next four years. I am pleased to advise that Craigieburn Secondary College and Mount Ridley P-12 College are two of the successful schools, as part of a cluster of schools in the Hume area.

Site selection is taking into account a number of factors, including identifying where there are existing vocational education cluster arrangements and whether schools in the area had strong vocational programs. Other criteria include assessment of local industry demand for school based apprentices and trainees as well as the availability of high quality training providers.

I look forward to all of the schools involved in the Head Start initiative continuing the positive work in vocational education.

Hon James Merlino MP                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Deputy Premier                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Minister for Education                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Minister for Emergency Services