Premier Steven Marshall has expressed renewed confidence in South Australia's TAFE system after major investment in vocational training by the new state government.
Mr Marshall says TAFE SA will become the first accredited training partner of the new Naval Shipbuilding College, which seeks to provide the skilled workers for future defence work in Adelaide including the navy's new submarines and frigates.
"I'm absolutely convinced that the new investment that the government has made means that we are going to be able to provide the very best training going forward to make sure that we can deliver on the massive naval shipbuilding contracts," Mr Marshall told reporters on Tuesday.
"But not just these contracts, a range of other vocational, education and training areas that our state to desperately needs."
In the recent state budget, the government confirmed plans to invest $200 million to support new apprenticeships and traineeships in SA and $100 million into the TAFE sector.
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Though it also announced the closure of seven TAFE campuses, four in Adelaide and three in regional centres because of low student numbers.
The budget decisions followed a move by the Liberals to replace the TAFE board after an audit in 2017 led to 14 substandard training courses being temporarily suspended.
"We all know that under the previous government that TAFE wasn't performing," Mr Marshall said.
"TAFE has had a reduced number of students right across TAFE for a number of years now. We've got to turn that around."
