Budget 2020: Funding flows for learning for work

The budget boosts skills and training with funding for 100,000 apprenticeships, 50,000 places in six-month courses and 12,000 new university places.

The 2020 budget boosts skills and training with funding for 100,000 apprenticeships.

The budget boosts skills and training with funding for 100,000 apprenticeships, 50,000 places in six-month courses and 12,000 new university places in an effort to equip people for new jobs in the post-COVID recovery.

The $1.2bn apprenticeship scheme, which will subsidise up to 50 per cent of an apprentice’s wages (up to $7000 a quarter), is available to all businesses or group training organisations that hire an apprentice between October 5 and September 30, 2021.

The subsidy is limited to 100,000 places.

Employment and Skills Minister Michaelia Cash said it would “play a critical role in developing and delivering the pipeline of skilled workers that businesses and industry needs to support our economic recovery”.

The new scheme, Boosting Apprenticeships Commencements, comes on top of a $2.8bn wage-subsidy scheme, Supporting Apprentices and Trainees, announced earlier this year which is focused on small and medium-sized businesses. The earlier scheme is expected to support 90,000 employers keep 180,000 apprentices in work.

The 50,000 short-course places, also announced in the budget, build on Education Minister Dan Tehan’s initiative earlier this year to offer subsidised six-month courses to help train people in skills which are expected to be in demand during the COVID ­period and during the economic recovery.

Skills on offer in the courses include agriculture, health, science, IT and teaching.

“This investment will provide opportunities for students and the recently unemployed to retrain in areas of high demand and national priority,” the government said.

Universities and independent higher education providers are ­already offering the short online courses, at a cost of either $1200 or $2400, with up to 20,000 expected to be delivered this year.

At a cost of $252m, the government will support institutions to deliver another 50,000 courses over the next two years.

Prospective university students will benefit from $299m allocated in the budget for 12,000 extra university degree places to be offered to students commencing next year on top of the 17,000 which the government had announced in June in its Jobs-ready Graduates package.

The government said the additional 12,000 places would be prioritised according to labour market need.

“These places will support school leavers and job seekers to build career pathways and develop skills which meet the needs of prospective employers, and help drive the nation’s economic recovery,” it said.

The budget also announced an expanded skills reform package which includes a $92m data management system to help the ­government to administer ­apprenticeship programs, and $30m over four years for the National Careers Institute which will offer people simplified career and vocational education information.

There will also be $52m over the next three years to expand the Skills for Education and Employment scheme to give more people the opportunity to get training in basic language, literacy and numeracy skills.

Developing skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) among schoolchildren will also be supported with $27m over the next five years. It includes $10m to the Australian Academy of Science to develop school science curricula and offer professional development to teachers.