Statement 1: Budget Overview (Continued)
Australia's future workforce
The Government is implementing its $3 billion Building Australia's Future Workforce skills package, delivering systematic reform through the National Partnership signed with states and territories, and is making additional investments in this Budget to fund new initiatives and support the Government's ongoing skills reform agenda.
In this Budget, the Government is also acting to reduce barriers that limit Australians from gaining the benefits of participating in the workforce, including by ensuring child care is accessible for all. This is in recognition that the right incentives and programs need to be in place for all Australians to build a skilled, flexible and diverse workforce.
A highly skilled and productive workforce, engaged in the labour market, ensures that our businesses are resilient, innovative and competitive in the global economy and that individuals can secure a job and earn a decent income.
Delivering on our skills commitments
The Government is rolling out significant reform in vocational education and training (VET) through the $3 billion Building Australia's Future Workforce skills package. The National Workforce Development Fund, delivered as part of this package, has already committed funding for over 50,000 training places, with business contributing around one third of the cost, and mentoring support for 12,000 young apprentices.
Strengthening vocational education and training
As a key part of these reforms, the Government recently signed the five‑year, $1.75 billion National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform with the States and Territories to deliver greater access to affordable high‑quality training through the VET system.
The reforms will provide training to individuals who need skills to participate and be productive in the labour market and skills for which there is strong business demand or which are in short supply.
Reforms will focus on creating a more accessible and equitable VET system through including a national entitlement to training at a minimum of the first Certificate III qualification and expanding access to student loans to reduce upfront cost barriers to study at the diploma and advanced diploma levels and for certain Certificate IV qualifications.
The wide‑reaching reforms will also create a more transparent VET system through increased availability of information on the new My Skills website, and improve the quality of VET teaching and training, including through trials of external validation of training provider assessments. The reforms will also promote equity through additional incentives to improve completion rates, particularly for disadvantaged students.
Investing in training to support growth
In this Budget, the Government is providing an additional $101 million package of measures to support the Government's ongoing skills reform agenda.
The Government is supporting the up‑skilling and re‑skilling of mature‑age workers including through an additional $35.0 million over four years in the National Workforce Development Fund, and $26.0 million for a new Silver Service employment program for mature‑age jobseekers aged 55 years and over.
The Government is also actively supporting recently qualified tradespeople to establish and manage their own business through subsidised business skills training and mentoring ($19.4 million over four years).
In this Budget, the Government is establishing three Australian Skills Centres of Excellence to advance innovation and promote excellence across Australian industry by supporting innovative production processes and teaching and learning methods in the VET sector ($18.1 million over four years).
Assisting workers with children
The Government is helping to ensure child care is more accessible, assisting parents to participate in the workforce and community, by investing an additional $225.1 million over four years for Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance (JETCCFA). Around 130,000 income support recipients will receive assistance with child care costs to participate in work, study, training or job‑search activities. This additional funding will address a growing demand for JETCCFA, which is occurring as an increasing number of income support recipients are accessing assistance for child care costs to enable them to participate in the workforce or undertake further study or training. This follows the Government's efforts to make it easier for working families to meet the costs of child care by increasing the Child Care Rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of out of pocket costs, up to a maximum of $7,500 per year for each child.
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