Job creation remains the Liberal Government's number one priority, and while many Tasmanian’s are finding jobs and feeling more confident about their future, we know there is more to do to take Tasmania to the next level.
That's why our Plan to Build Your Future includes a new goal to grow the number of jobs in tourism and hospitality to 50,000 by 2022.
To do this we will need to upskill more workers, and a key part of our plan to do this is to revitalise the industry training centre, Drysdale House.
Over recent months we have worked with the tourism and hospitality sector - including the industry’s two peak bodies the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania (TICT) and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association (THA) – to develop a comprehensive plan to meet the workforce development and training challenges from the rapid growth of our visitor economy.
Today I am announcing our response to the Workforce Taskforce's ‘Servicing Our Growth’ report which provides advice on the priorities and steps needed.
As part of these recommendations, we will give Drysdale more autonomy to operate as an industry training body by establishing a sub-committee of the TasTAFE Board with industry representatives to oversee Drysdale as a Centre of Excellence, as recommended by the Taskforce report.
Under the new arrangements, the entire budget and management of Drysdale will be transferred to the sub-committee, allowing it to be more responsive and effective for industry, while remaining within the TAFE umbrella.
TasTAFE plays a critical role in meeting Tasmania’s training needs and up-skilling our workforce for the future.
As well as contributing over $9 million annually to fund tourism and hospitality training for local Tasmanians, we are investing $3.2 million to turn Drysdale in Hobart into a Centre of Excellence for hospitality, as announced in our 2017/18 State Budget.
Today I am also releasing our response to the report recommendations of the taskforce.
The Tasmanian Government will continue to strongly support our tourism and hospitality industry as one of our great competitive strengths, which supports local jobs right across the state and our plan to have the lowest unemployment rate of any state in the country.
The report recommendations can be found here: http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/342777/Servicing_our_Growth.pdf