Following the release of the Federal Budget in May, various states and territories have since announced their own budgets. Here we provide a summary of the skills, education and training initiatives funded in the budgets of Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, with NSW due to deliver its 2023-24 Budget on Tuesday, 19 September.
Victoria
The Victorian Government, in its 2023-24 Budget, has a significant focus on skills for a clean energy economy, much of it centred on the fact that the state government is reviving and re-establishing the former State Electricity Commission and the release of its ten-year, net-zero Clean Economy Workforce Development Strategy 2023-2023. Free TAFE eligibility has also been expanded to meet increased demand, and initiatives to support for apprentices and trainees have also been introduced.
- The introduction of a clean energy VET pathway to the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Vocational Major from 2024.
- Funding to support 10,000 students to undertake work experience placements in clean energy and other priority pathways.
- $12 million to develop a business case for a State Electricity Commission (SEC) Centre of Training Excellence to provide training in the latest energy skills.
- The creation of two Clean Energy Worker Training Centres for the emerging offshore and onshore wind industry, and the hydrogen industry.
- The announcement of six new Tech Schools in Frankston, Hume, Warrnambool, Dandenong, Brimbank, and Wangaratta, and establish a Clean Energy Equipment Fund for new and existing Tech Schools.
- Expanding the training subsidy eligibility criteria to make subsidised training courses, including Free TAFE, more widely available to people returning to study and lifting the once-in-a-lifetime limit on enrolling in a Free TAFE course to allow students to access multiple Free TAFE courses along priority training pathways.
- Extra funding to meet expected demand for subsidised accredited training, including Free TAFE. The funding also includes additional literacy, numeracy and digital literacy support for Free TAFE students, support for pre-accredited learners and to transition to a new national system for reporting training activity.
- The introduction of an apprentice mental health training program for apprentices, including support for apprentices at smaller employers to access employee assistance programs and for employers to improve their mental health and suicide prevention literacy.
- The establishment of an Apprenticeships Taskforce with employee, union, and industry representatives to consider measures to improve safety and fairness for apprentices, including an assessment of existing regulation and options for reform.
- Expansion of the motor vehicle registration discount for eligible trade apprentices from 50% to 100%.
Queensland
The Queensland Government has largely extended funding for existing initiatives and introduced some new ones.
- Regional School Industry Partnerships: $5 million over 4 years to strengthen local school-industry partnerships and support school to work transitions.
- Place-based Skills and Job Creation Initiatives: additional funding of $3.5 million over 4 years to partner with rural and remote communities to deliver place-based skills and job creation initiatives to increase workforce capacity in these locations.
- Micro-Credentialing Pilot Program: $5.9 million over 2 years to extend the program to provide increased access to industry-supported short courses.
- Group Training Organisation Pre-Apprenticeships Program: $7.3 million to expand the program to encourage more individuals to complete an apprenticeship and to provide employers with greater access to skilled workers.
The following initiatives are included in the government’s Good People. Good Jobs: Queensland Workforce Strategy budget measures:
- Workforce Connect Fund: Funding to increase investment in industry and community led projects that address attraction, retention and participation issues within the workforce. To date, 16 projects have been funded, creating 6,300 new jobs and upskilling almost 14,000 existing workers.
- Industry Workforce Advisors: funding over 3 years for a network of Industry Workforce Advisors across 11 industries to work directly with up to 1,800 small and medium sized enterprises to help them to address workforce challenges, diversify their workforces and support workforce growth.
- Diverse Queensland Workforce: Assistance for up to 2,500 migrants, refugees and international students to gain employment across 9 delivery locations in the state. To date, more than 1,000 people have been assisted, with 85 per cent of participants exiting the program gaining employment.
- Paving the Way – First Nations Training Strategy: Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' skills development and respond to local and community employment needs.
- Hydrogen Gateway to Industry Schools project: to deliver a new hydrogen stream in the Gateway to Industry Schools Program, supporting career pathways into this emerging industry for up to 2,000 students across more than 30 schools.
- Train and Retain activities: supporting apprenticeship and traineeship retention and completions. The activities are underpinned by the Let’s Protect Respect campaign, supporting positive action to embrace gender equality and ensure sexism and unfair treatment has no place in the workplace.
There are also several initiatives to support women into the workforce including:
- Women in Trade Apprenticeships Mentoring Program: support for women undertaking a trade apprenticeship and provide them with a network to improve retention and completion rates
- Women in Network Grants Program: to support girls and women's participation and pathways in male dominated industries, including through support to recruit, retain, upskill and progress into leadership positions in these industries.
- Future Women - Jobs Academy program: to train, support and connect up to an estimated 500 unemployed and underemployed women with paid employment and training programs.
- Fresh Start for Me (transition from recovery to workforce): to establish online resources to support women, post domestic and family violence crisis, to return to or enter the workforce.
Western Australia
- The wages of all apprentices who are undertaking training under an approved training contract are exempt from payroll tax. The payroll tax exemption for new employee trainees earning up to $100 000 per annum will continue to apply for the nominal duration of training contracts that were registered with the Department of Training and Workforce Development before 1 July 2019.
- The introduction of a completion bonus of $2,000 and tool and safety equipment rebate of up to $500 to encourage construction apprentices to complete their qualifications, and an increase in the base employer grant for all third and fourth year apprentices from $10,000 to $12,000.
- The Group Training Organisation (GTO) Wage Subsidy will be expanded to include residential and commercial construction sector apprentices.
- Creation of a school-based apprenticeship support scheme for students identified as vulnerable and at risk of not completing training.
- TAFE Scholarships for Women in Non-traditional Occupations to support women into non-traditional trade and technical occupations. It’s capped at 400 places.
South Australia
- Funding to continue the Group Training Organisation (GTO) Boost program for adult apprentices or trainees aged 21 years or above upon commencement. The program is intended to enable GTOs to offer host employers a charge out rate reduction of $100 per week per adult apprentice or trainee, for a period of 12 months, for up to 200 new training contract commencements per annum. The continuation of the program will support mature age apprentices to make a successful transition to the skilled workforce, including in areas where there are skills shortages.
- Funding to address current and emerging skill shortages and support quality training through a targeted increase in the training subsidy for high quality not-for-profit and industry-based training providers aligned with areas of skill demand and economic priorities.
- Funding for StudyAdelaide to attract and retain high quality international students to drive sustained growth following the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Establishment of a Regional Skills Development Fund that will ensure TAFE SA can offer more courses in rural and regional South Australia aligned with the needs of local industry and government priorities.
Northern Territory
- Payments of either $300 or $1000 are available through the workwear and work gear bonus to eligible first-year full-time, part-time or school-based apprentices or trainees to subsidise workwear and equipment costs.
Tasmania
- The Payroll Tax Rebate Scheme has been extended to 30 June 2024 and applies to all new apprentices and trainees employed before that date. The payroll tax rebate is provided for a two-year period from the date that apprentices and trainees are employed and one year from the date that youth employees are employed.
- $4 million over six years for Build Up Tassie, a free work readiness program for anyone aged between 16-24 looking to enter the construction industry.
- The implementation of the Literacy Community-wide Framework. The Literacy Advisory Panel has developed a community-wide framework towards the aspirational goal of achieving 100 per cent functional literacy in Tasmania.
- $1 million for the Skills Up! program to provide free short courses at TasTAFE to upskill or re-skill for work in growth industries.
The Ai Group Centre for Education and Training would like to acknowledge that where this information has not been directly sourced from budget papers, it has been sourced from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) VET Knowledge Bank, available at https://www.voced.edu.au/vet-knowledge-bank
