14 November 2018

Jeremy Rockliff, Minister for Education and Training
Minister for Infrastructure

Driving for Jobs program

A priority for the Hodgman Liberal Government is delivering more employment opportunities and we know that gaining a driving licence can dramatically improve job prospects for young people.

We launched the Driving for Jobs pilot program at the Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School at the start of the year, because we could see a real need in helping those students to become job ready.

All students aged 16-19 at the school have had the opportunity to attain a Provisional Driving Licence and/or improve their skills relating to driver education and road safety.

Having a Provisional driver’s licence means students not only have the capacity to get to and from future employment, it opens up more opportunities as some jobs require a driver’s licence.

This investment is only possible due to the Hodgman Liberal Government’s strong financial management. It is supported by our record $324 million investment into education, including 358 more staff and $192 million in education and training infrastructure.

The Driving for Jobs program has seen some tremendous achievements:

• 35 Year 11 and 12 students passed their L1 assessment.
• 17 students passed their L2 assessment.
• 3 students achieved their P1 licence.
• 8 students progressed through from beginner to their L2 assessment.
• The program has provided more than 152 driving lessons this year and in excess of 256.5 hours of on-road driving.

The Jordan River Federation Senior School is striving for excellence and future skill development for its young people and the Driving for Jobs program has been a great partnership with the Ls2Ps Driving School’s driving instructor Tejana Smith.

Congratulations to all of those involved with this pilot program from school staff and students to Road Safety and Skills Tasmania – I’m sure that the skills and confidence achieved by the students will set them up for a lifetime of safe driving.

Our targets for Education and training infrastructure include:

• Invest a record $324 million over six years into Education including 250 more teachers and 358 new staff in total.
• Invest $192 million in Education infrastructure.
• By 2020 be at or above the national standard in every single NAPLAN measurement in reading, writing, maths and science.
• Ensure the retention rate of students from years 10-12 is at or above the national average by 2022.
• 75 per cent of all students to complete their TCE by 2022.
• Increase the long-term average investment in public infrastructure by 20 per cent

See all of our targets at: https://www.tas.liberal.org.au/sites/default/files/BuildingYourFuture.pdf

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