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Education and training

Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce report: Footprints to the Future

The Government has agreed to a number of measures as an initial response to the Prime Minister's Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce Report: Footprints to the Future. These include:

• an additional $9.7 million to the Enterprise and Career Education Foundation to extend its Work Placement Coordinator arrangements into remote areas of central and northern Australia, ensuring national coverage. The Work Placement Coordinator activities involve partnerships between industry and education at the local level. They foster greater involvement by local enterprises and industry bodies in vocational education and training in schools programmes and also maintain important linkages between schools and the community.
• an additional $46.7 million over four years to the Jobs Pathways Programme and an additional $16.8 million over four years will be provided to the Job Placement, Education and Training Programme. The additional funding will ensure that these programmes can continue to meet the current level of demand for services to young people. The additional funding will have a positive impact on many regional centres.
• piloting initiatives that test new approaches to providing enhanced career and transition information and support to young people aged 13-19 years and their families. Some of the pilot locations will be regional schools. The cost of the pilots will be $3.6 million over 2001-02 and 2002-03.
• piloting cross-portfolio and cross-government collaborative approaches to the delivery of government services to young people, and encouraging greater community involvement in the development of local strategies to deliver more effective services and outcomes for young people, including those in rural and regional areas. Approximately 18 pilot projects will test new ways to support young people, including early intervention and prevention. The cost of the pilots will be $3.7 million over the period 2001-02 to 2002-03; and
• the Mentor Marketplace, $4.8 million to be made available over three years to increase access to mentoring for young people. The Mentor Marketplace will assist young people to stay connected to the key institutions of family, education, training and the workplace.

Higher education places for regional universities and campuses

The Government will provide an additional 670 Commonwealth-funded commencing student places a year for regional higher education institutions and campuses from 2002 at a cost of $34.8 million over four years.

As a result of this measure, the number of new fully-funded regional places will total 5,226 over four years and are on top of the 110,000 places already fully funded by the Commonwealth at regional universities around Australia.

New on-line initiatives mean more educational support for rural and regional Australia

Also announced as part of Backing Australia's Ability and funded through tonight's Budget is $34.1 million over five years to support on-line curriculum development, which will assist schools in rural and regional Australia to gain access to world-class curriculum materials.

Rural and Regional Australia benefits from Vocational and Education training programmes

The Federal Government will spend a record $7.6 billion over the next four years on vocational education and training programmes, including programmes for New Apprenticeships, industry training, and training for unemployed young people.

Training opportunities in rural and regional areas will be boosted by an extra $230 million that will be made available to the States and Territories to support training places in 2001 to 2003 through the Government's proposal for a new Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Agreement. This will bring total Commonwealth funding to States and Territories to more than $4.4 billion over the next four years.

The new funding would give the States and Territories access to growth funding of up to $50 million, $76 million and $104 million in the years 2001 to 2003 respectively.*

* Includes estimated indexation on $75 million in 2002 and $100 million in 2003.

Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme

The Government provides funding in the order of $40 million per year for the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme. The scheme provides funding to help rural families meet the costs associated with boarding arrangements, setting up a second family home or studying via distance education. The scheme has benefited from previous Budget measures to increase allowances.

Country Areas Programme

The Government is providing $22.3 million for Country Areas Programme in 2001-02. The programme is continuing to improve the educational opportunities, participation, learning outcomes and personal development of rural and isolated primary and secondary students.

Indigenous education programmes

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP) aims to bring about equity in education for Indigenous Australians. The Commonwealth, along with all State and Territory Governments, endorses and promotes 21 common and agreed national goals. The policy has a significant impact on regional, rural and remote Australia, where many clients are located.

Assistance of approximately $216.5 million nationally for 2001-02 will be provided under the Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Programme, the Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme, the Vocational and Educational Guidance for Aboriginals Scheme and the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme. In addition, $139 million will be provided under ABSTUDY for eligible Indigenous students undertaking secondary or tertiary education, many of whom live or study in regional, rural or remote areas.