Liberal dose of technical talk

By Shaun Inguanzo
THE LIBERAL Party is calling for an Australian Technical College to be built on the site of the soon-to-be-closed Springvale Secondary College.
But Labor says Australian Technical Colleges undermine existing TAFE colleges and are not part of a long term plan by the Howard Government to fix Australia’s skills shortage.
Springvale Secondary College is planning to vacate its Sandown Road site in the near future to merge with Heatherhill, Coomoora and Chandler Secondary Colleges at the Chandler and Heatherhill sites.
Liberal candidate for Isaacs Ross Fox announced that an Australian Technical College would likely be built in Melbourne’s south-east if the Howard Government was reelected.
Mr Fox said the Prime Minister had just announced $2.1 billion in funding over 10 years to establish 100 Australian Technical Colleges.
“I will be talking to our local secondary schools to determine their interest in specialising in technical and vocational education by becoming an Australian Technical College,” Mr Fox said.
“The new colleges will be industry led, and will have strong links to local businesses to ensure that local students are learning the necessary skills to enable them to get a career in our local industries.”
His call came just after Victorian Upper House member for the South Eastern Metropolitan Region, Inga Peulich, urged the State Government to turn one of the two Springvale school sites, being vacated as part of plans to build a super school, into a tech college. Ms Peulich has started a petition and is urging residents to sign it in a bid to apply pressure on the Brumby Government to build a technical college that would provide an opportunity for students who are more practical than academic to expand their skills.
Isaacs candidate for Labor, Mark Dreyfus, slammed Ms Peulich and Mr Fox for their Australian Technical College suggestions.
“Mr Howard only responds to Australia’s skills crisis during election campaigns,” he said.
“The Liberal proposal undermines existing TAFE infrastructure.
“They have no long-term commitment to trades education in the south-east, only Labor has a comprehensive $2.5 billion plan for trades training in every Australian secondary school.”