The Minister for employment, skills, small and family business has announced a $500 million package to help Australians become job-ready.
Senator Michaelia Cash announced the ‘Skills Package Delivering Skills for Today and Tomorrow’ at the National Vocational Education and Training Research conference on Thursday.
‘The Skills Package will work to ensure Australians can gain the skills needed to support current and future prosperity by providing clear and reliable careers guidance to inform study choices, better foundation skills training so no one is left behind, and more apprentices for jobs in demand,’ she said.
The skills that are needed in today’s workforce are constantly evolving with employers increasingly wanting workers who are job-ready, with practical skills and employment history.
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In addition to the $3 billion set aside for the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, the government is pumping in an additional half a million to ensure it remains world-class, modern and flexible, Minister Cash said on Thursday.
“We need to ensure that Australians have the skills for jobs of today but also for the jobs of tomorrow. And that is exactly what our investment of half a million dollars is going to do,” said Ms Cash told SBS Hindi.
The additional funding will be used to support employers, workers and learners through the VET sector.
Under the scheme, a new National Skills Commission will be established to provide leadership on workforce needs and VET funding.
A national co-design process will determine the functions, remit and governance of the new Commission.
“The skills commission is going to look at how we can partner with industries in developing new qualifications to meet the skills demand in the future,” Ms Cash said.
Pointing out that seven of the 10 most in-demand occupations have a VET pathway, Senator Cash pointed out there will be an increased focus on certain sectors.
“We are looking at occupations like Aged care and disabled care, child care, software programmers but also educationists, public relations and sales officer. So it is a pretty wide gamut of occupations that people could choose from,” she said.
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Additional Identified Skills Shortage Payment for new apprentices from July 1
The Government has also introduced the Additional Identified Skills Shortage Payment from 1 July this year – a payment for eligible new apprentices and employers in areas of national skills shortage.
This is aimed to boost the supply of skilled workers, help businesses grow and support up to 80,000 additional apprenticeships over the next five years.
The new incentive payments will be in addition to existing incentives for apprenticeships, which will be simplified and streamlined next year.
"We are committed to ensuring apprentice and trainee incentives meet demand and that they are responsive to a changing workforce. We have also expanded the successful Australian Apprentice Wage Subsidy Trial," Ms Cash said.
"A further $60 million will double its size and help ensure that around 3,200 Australians living in our regions have the opportunity to secure an apprenticeship," she said.
