PRIME MINISTER1
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER," THE HON P J KEATING MPAUSTRALIAN
SKILL OLYMPICS TEAM FAREWELL
SYDNEY, 6 OCTOBER 1995
I'm very happy to be in Sydney today to farewell the Australian team for the 33rd International Skill Olympics. More than 6000 young people from across the continent competed for positions on the team, so you should feel extremely proud of your selection.
Of course, you won't get as much media coverage as those more glamorous Olympians who are going to Atlanta next year. But your efforts in Lyon will be no less significant, the message you bear at least as profound.
In fact, from a national perspective, Lyon is the main game. In Lyon the mettle of
Australian industry will in no small way be tested.
Lyon is the main game because, increasingly, education and training matters like
nothing else.
The world is changing visibly, quickly, inexorably.
Trade walls are falling over, capital markets arc shaking themselves free of
regulation, transport and telecommunications developments are outstripping each
other, countries are at once more interlinked and interdependent and more
competitive. And the story of work is being rewritten.
The US commentator, Peter Drucker, has written that at the end of the twentieth
century, a new society is emerig the knowledge society. It is a society where the
key resource is not capital or labour, but knowledge.
The forces driving this transformation are bigger than all of us. If we adapt to the
changes we will prosper if we don't, we'll founder.
We can catch the wave in to the shore, or we can let it wash over us and leave us
behind.
In a knowledge society, Australia has to own the knowledge Australians have to
earn it. And to do that, we have to invest in education and training.
We have to invest in formal education, and not just because formal education
delivers formal knowledge. Formal education teaches people how to learn. It begets
the capacity to acquire skills on the job.
And having formal education and informal skills demonstrably helps individuals and,
in turn, companies and countries, to adopt and adapt to new technologies. Which is
the essential prerequisite, of economic growth and wealth acquisition in the modern
world. Education and skills are essential in the challenge of the new technologies and new
information. They are the essential means of coping with the uncertainty of changc
and turning it to our advantage.
We shouldnt forget that education is not just about economic efficiency: education
linked to informal on the job training is the kcy to individual prosperity and well
being. Government involvement in education is like it always has been the best kind of
intervention to create individual opportunity where inherited economic
circumstances would otherwise deny it.
iEducation and skills development have a profound social dimension as well as an
economic one they are essential to our success in the world economy and essential
to our becoming a fairer and genuinely more democratic society.
Pursuing an education is the most important thing a young person can do. A good
education is the best guarantee of an interesting job. It holds the most promise for a
prosperous life.
Nothing is more important to Australia and Australians than education, and can
safely say that nothing is more important to the Australian Government. We have nio
greater responsibility.
Over the last decade we have done a lot towards renovating Australia's education
and tmining sectors.
Since 1990, we have doubled spending on vocational education: from $ 344 million
in 1990 to S779 million in 1995.
We have established the National Employment and Training Taskforce
( NETTFORCE) to increase industry's commitment to traineeships and last year,
apprentice and traineeship commencements as a proportion of the 15-19 year old
population were higher than that achieved in any of the previous three decades.
We have increased participation in universities from 340,000 students in 1982 to
600,000 today and greatly improved school retention rates from 36% in 1982 to
in 1994.
We are on our way to ensuring that by the year 2001, 95% of 19 year olds will have
completed Year 12 or an initial post-school qualification or are participating in
formal education and training.
The last decade has witnessed a sea change in the Australian education and training
sector. You can sense the change when you talk to people, when you visit their
workplaces, when you see the things they make and the services they provide.
Australia is a livelier place now, more alert and energetic with a much larger
future. So we have come a long way.
But we have not come far enough.
We must provide better education to more Australians. And we must provide them with coninusous education because the knowledge they will need to survive is always changing.
The sector which has seen the greatest amount of change and the greatest rate of change is the communications sector.
The development of the new information technologies offers new opportunities for
Australians but only for Australians with the right training.
There will be new industries to develop, and new economies in which to work. But
if we are to maximise the benefits we derive from the new information age if we
are to suck out all the value and all the jobs then we have to ensure that our young
people understand the new technologies.
That's why the Government is investing in a comprehensive education network service, called EdNA, to ensure all students and teachers arc equipped for the information society.
That's also why I'm glad to see that WorkSkill Australia has played an important role in the inclusion of a Global Multimedia Challenge as part of this years Skill Olympics. In this and other ways, WorkSkill Australia has done a superb job in co-ordinating Australia's effort for the Skill Olympics. Over the years, the organisation, led so energetically by lack Dusseldorp, has enabled nearly 30,000 young Australians to test their skills in qualifying events for the Olympic team.
Last year's inaugural Australian Training Awards recognised the great contribution made by WorkSkill Australia to vocational education and training.
Congratulations to the people at WorkSkill Australia. And I must not let pass the opportunity to congratulate Jack Dusscldorp on his nomination for the Presidency of the International Organisation for the Promotion of Vocational Training and International Youth Skill Olympics.
Most importantly, I want to congratulate the competitors we are farcwelling today.
Good luck to you all. We will be watching your progress keenly, and willing you on to victory for yourselves and your families, but also for Australia.