Thank you very much Phillip, Mr Coulson, ladies and gentlemen. In 1995 there were 140,000 apprentices in training in Australia. This year there are 391,000 in apprenticeships or traineeships and of all the things that we have tried to do over the last few years in government nothing is more important to me than the opportunities that we have provided to that 70 per cent of young Australians in the main who leave school and who don';t go on to university. We have an enormous amount of public focus on university education but quietly and steadily we have seen enormous improvements in the area that we mark today, and I congratulate VECCI on winning the open competitive tender to provide the shopfront services for apprenticeships in Victoria, they';ll be 17 locations, one of them in Mitcham, just around the corner, and they will provide advice to employers and they';ll provide assistance to apprentices and trainees to meet their needs and to fulfil their aspirations. We need more people to go into training, we need more people to go into apprenticeships and we are providing the opportunities. In the last Budget we provided an additional $219 million over a period of three years to go into the national traineeships arrangement which is a venture between the Commonwealth and the States. And it involves a 12 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding and I hope that the states will be willing to match that because it';s important that this continue to be a collaboration and a partnership between the Commonwealth and the States.
We have expanded the opportunities for apprenticeships and traineeships, linking into the school experience and the school year and over the past seven years there has been a very significant expansion also in the number of people in traineeships in more mature age groups, there';s been a very significant rise in the number of people who have gone into apprenticeships and traineeships who are over 40. So it';s not just expanding opportunities for people who are leaving school, important though that continues to be, but it';s also about giving opportunities for people to change their career direction in their more mature years.
Australians of current generations are more likely to have several rather than just one career. Years ago people habitually decided on a career when they left school, often they attached themselves to a particular employer and there they stayed for the rest of their working lives. Now there is nothing wrong with that, if you';ve got the right employer and you got a career that you enjoy, and that';s what you want to do and there are still plenty of Australians who do that and I encourage Australians who I want to do that to continue to do so. But it';s also very important that we understand that if we want to change career direction and we have the will to do so and we have the opportunity and there are training facilities available for that to occur then it should take place and the expansion of apprenticeships and traineeships is a way in which that can occur.
So can I say that the capacity we have found to increase in partnership with VECCI and in partnership with state governments, a capacity we';ve found over the last seven years to increase the number of apprenticeships and traineeships from that figure of 140,000 to 391,000 is something that I think has been very important because economic strength and economic growth and economic development is not just about companies making profits and that';s very important, it';s not just about reducing the level of unemployment, it';s not just about reducing interest rates, all of those things are very important but even more importantly it';s about giving people fulfilling employment and jobs and opportunities and careers. And we want that at a university level, that';s important, we also want it at an apprenticeship and a traineeship level and perhaps as a society we focus too much on universities. I saw some footage last night of people complaining about something that the University of Sydney was about to do, they were complaining about the possibility that the University of Sydney might increase some of its course charges by 30 per cent, I didn';t see those same people protesting at the fact that TAFE charges in New South Wales in some cases have been increased in the recent State Budget by 200 to 300 per cent, and that';s definitely happened and this 30 per cent is a possibility, I think it';s a demonstration that as a community we just focus sometimes a little disproportionably on university education and we don';t focus enough on apprenticeships and traineeships and how tremendously important they are, not only to the men and women here today but to the whole economy and the whole community.
Phil, great pleasure to be back in the electorate of Deakin, so very well and energetically represented by you in the national parliament. I want to thank Mr and Mrs Starr and congratulate them on the birth of their third child and to say that this is a small business that';s grown, he was telling me about how he';s trying to break into the American market with this new device, he was explaining to me, and I';m impressed. I wish him well and it';s a very big market and what';s more it';s going to get bigger as the years go by, and that';s why we';re trying to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with the Americans, there';s no market going to be more important to this country as the years go by than that of the huge and expanding United States economy.
But, thanks for having me, I wish all of the apprentices and trainees who are here every success. I hope that you fulfil everything you want in relation to your own careers, I hope that you continue to have job satisfaction, it is important because we do spend a lot of time at work, no matter what work we do and it';s important that we enjoy it. It';s important that we find it fulfilling and it';s important that we have a good relationship with the people that we work with, whether they';re employed by them or we work with them or they work in answer to our advice and our instruction, but thank you all and again can I congratulate VECCI for winning the contract, I know it will provide a good service, it';s a very important partnership with the Government and I look forward to its expansion in the time ahead.
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