Our commitment

Five new technical colleges will be built across South Australia – 3 in metropolitan Adelaide and 2 in regional South Australia. The technical colleges will support students in years 10 to 12 to complete their SACE while undertaking vocational education and training (VET) in specialist state-of-the-art facilities.

Why SA needs technical colleges

South Australia is experiencing a mismatch between the skills needed by industry and the amount of skilled people in the population.

Completing school is a crucial first step for getting work and going on to further study. A large proportion of students are not completing their secondary school – yet 9 out of 10 new jobs will require a post-secondary school qualification.

South Australia has a relatively high youth unemployment rate. At the same time, we’re experiencing a skills shortage. Many students are interested in pursuing a vocational career and starting that while in school, but the options are limited.

The design and development of the technical colleges has been informed by industry and employer input. The purpose-built facilities and training programs developed with industry partners provide a new pathway to start a career. Graduates from the technical colleges will have the skills that employers need for careers in key industries.

Find out more about industry engagement and feedback PDF, 311.12 KB.

A new option for high school students – go from in school to in-demand

The technical colleges will provide a new option for high school students in South Australia. They’ll equip students with workplace skills and provide a pipeline of workers to growing industry sectors.

They will provide a bridge between the world of education and the world of work. Students that complete our industry training programs will leave with the training, technical know-how and employability skills that local industry needs.

Partnering with local industry

Each technical college will have a network of local industry or employer partners helping to design the industry training programs. These programs will cover both the essential curriculum, and also sought-after technical qualifications and workplace learning. They'll be taught by specialist staff using state-of-the-art equipment.

We are consulting widely to identify the industry sectors for each technical college to make sure that:

• students graduate with the qualifications and skills that local industries need
• our technical colleges are equipped with the right workplace learning equipment
• our training programs reflect the reality of today’s workplaces.

The consultation process is ongoing.

Opening soon in areas with high demand

These colleges will be evenly spread throughout the metropolitan area, and in the larger regional areas.

We’re building technical colleges in:

• Findon
• Tonsley
• Modbury Heights
• Mount Gambier
• Port Augusta.

These are the areas we expect to have the greatest need for skilled workers in entry-level positions. Each college to have around 200 full-time students.

Findon Technical College – co-located with Findon High School – will open in 2024 with applications now open.

Tonsley Technical College and Port Augusta Technical College will follow in 2025, with the remaining 2 to open by 2026.

An investment in our future

The total cost for all 5 technical colleges is $208.8 million. Included in that is around $30 million in operating costs for the colleges across 3 years.