Thursday, 4 December 2025

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:20): I rise today to update members on the amazing achievements in the skills and TAFE portfolio that have occurred in 2025. We are getting on with building the TAFE infrastructure that we need. This year I have celebrated over 15 different capital milestones, including designs, sod turns and openings. Free TAFE has now helped over 225,000 students save an average of $3000 a course, and that is approximately 40,000 students this year. We are delivering on the apprenticeships taskforce recommendations and have launched the Apprentice Helpdesk so that apprentices can get the support that they need, and since 2019 we have issued almost 50,000 trade papers to apprentices. Victoria took home 19 gold medals at the national WorldSkills competition, including Melbourne Polytechnic’s Lily-Grace Toohill, a jewellery-making student who took one home for the best in the nation.

There have been even more outstanding results from our providers this year, like Bendigo Kangan TAFE being named Large Training Provider of the Year at the Victorian Training Awards, as one of our most innovative and progressive training providers. This excellence is also shown in the latest National Centre for Vocational Education Research data, with more Victorian TAFE students completing their studies, with a 5 per cent increase in completions over the last five years. This is close to a 15 per cent higher completion rate than in universities. This Labor government saved TAFE after the cuts of the previous coalition government left our TAFE system in ruins. With public TAFE at the centre of our system, the Allan Labor government is delivering the pipeline of skilled workers that Victoria needs. And for those opposite, who closed 22 TAFE campuses: a closed TAFE campus means zero completions.