Payments of $15k in bid to hire 80,000 new apprentices

The Morrison Government has included a big sweetener in the 2019 Federal Budget aimed at tradies, hairdressers, bakers and pastry cooks in a push to re-skill Australians and get more people into the workforce.

TRADIES will be paid up to $15,000 to take on 80,000 new apprentices, as part of a $525 million training scheme to re-skill Australia.

The Morrison Government will double the standard “incentive payment” to employers of apprentices, to $8000 per placement from July 1 this year.

And it will pay new apprentices $2000 to take up 10 key trades, in an effort to end the nation’s crippling skills shortage.

The incentives will be even higher in July next year, when bosses will be paid up to $15,000 to take on apprentices aged 21 or older, a disadvantaged person 45 years or older, students undertaking an Australian School-based Apprenticeship, or those working in a rural or regional area.

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The trades covered are carpenters and joiners, plumbers, hairdressers, airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics, bricklayers and stonemasons, plasterers, bakers and pastry cooks, vehicle painters, wall and floor tilers, and arborists.

Apprentices will be paid $1000 after the first year of training, and another $1000 when they finish.

Employers, who already receive $4000 per apprentice, will be given a $2000 bonus after 12 months plus $2000 upon completion of the apprenticeship.

The Federal Government hopes the handouts will encourage up to 80,000 new apprenticeships over the next five years.

The Budget also includes $8.2 million to tackle youth unemployment by paying for up to 400 scholarships for disadvantaged youth.

The Morrison Government will double the standard “incentive payment” to employers of apprentices. Picture: iStock

Teenagers and under-25s will be paid as much as $17,500 to train for up to three years at a vocational college, graduating with a Certificate III or diploma qualification.

Scholarships will be limited to regions of high youth unemployment, which have yet to be announced, and will prioritise youth with a disability, an indigenous or migrant background, or those who have left the Defence Force.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced last night that $62 million will be spent to boost literacy, numeracy and digital skills of 11,000 Australians, including those who left school without basic skills.

“We need to ensure all Australians of all ages have the skills they need for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow,’’ he told federal parliament.

The funding includes $52.2 million for workers or the recently unemployed to attend training courses to improve literacy, numeracy and digital skills.

Another $10 million will be spent to improve “foundation skills’’ in remote indigenous communities, including north Queensland.

The Coalition Government will also spend $24.1 million to encourage more Australians to take up seasonal work picking fruit and vegetables.

But it will clamp down on sham contracting through tougher penalties, and give the Fair Work Ombudsman extra funding to fight exploitation and recoup underpayments.

High-risk sectors, including horticulture, cleaning, meat processing and security, will be forced to register with the Government as a labour hire operator under a new registration scheme, to cost $28 million.