Cadetships would rescue VET in schools: Gillard

Having adopted Victoria’s approach to vocational training, federal Labor now plans to do something similar in the school space.

A re-elected Labor government would entrench the productivity agenda in schooling by establishing a dedicated vocational stream for Years 9 to 12 students, extending Victoria and Tasmania's two-tiered schooling approach across the rest of the country. Announcing a national trade cadetship scheme last week, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the new stream would be part of the national curriculum for schools. It would consist of two sub-streams, one a pre-apprenticeship in specific families of trades such as construction, mechanics, hospitality or IT. The other would be a more generalised...