Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan were in Brisbane this morning, to announce a $1.4 million project to help make Queensland a smarter state.
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Brisbane's Aviation High School was awarded the money to build a new aeroskills workshop as part of the Federal Government's first round of Trade Training in Schools funding, announced today.
About $90 million will be distributed among 34 "lead schools" to offer vocational industry-standard training to 96 schools across the nation.
Eleven of those lead schools are in Queensland and will share in $19.5 million.
Ms Gillard, as Minister for Education, said industry qualifications would improve high school retention rates and combat the trades shortage.
"It's all about real training for real jobs," Ms Gillard said.
"It's all about Australian kids getting the skills they need for their future."
She said roughly one-third of the lead schools were located in rural or remote areas and nearly half of the centres involved schools with a significant indigenous population.
The program will see $2.5 billion spent over 10 years.
Aviation High year 11 student Kurt Kranen will be among those to benefit from the new workshop.
The Tweed Heads local commutes for four hours each day so he can go to the school, but says he dreams of being a RAAF F18 fighter pilot and would not want to go to school anywhere else.
"I'm loving it," Mr Kranen said.
"It's great to be in a school where everyone is passionate about the same thing."
