The Treasurer, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, delivered the 2016-17
Commonwealth Budget where there were only a few new initiatives for the
education and training sector.
The key initiative in the Youth Employment Package is the Youth
Jobs PaTH (Prepare-Trial-Hire) Programme. Essentially it comprises three
stages. The first stage is six weeks of employment skills and job
preparation training. The next stage is 4-12 week internships that will provide
work experience for up to 120,000 eligible young people over four years.
The third stage is a revised Youth Bonus wage subsidy for the employment of
eligible young job seekers. These wage incentives will range from $6,500 to $10,000.
The incentives will apply to employers hiring eligible young people directly or
through labour hire, or combined with an apprenticeship or traineeship.
There are no other significant VET expenditure initiatives, with
funding cuts of $247.2 million to the Industry Skills Fund over five years
being used to help fund the Youth Employment Package. The recently introduced
VET FEE-HELP reforms are noted with any funding impacts likely to follow the
redesign proposed for 2017.
To assist the implementation of the National Strategy for
International Education announced on 30 April 2016 the Budget has allocated $12
million over four years. There is also $10.1 million over four years to boost
the capacity of TEQSA and $8.1 million over four years to support the Quality
Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) website to improve information for
students.
A discussion paper has been released to
support these consultations. This paper canvasses a number of options to
achieve more sustainable funding arrangements. The recent concerns with
the growth in HELP are strongly reflected in the paper. It is worth noting
that the paper does identify the anomaly in loan fees paid by FEE-HELP funded
students which is an issue ACPET has been advocating needs to be
addressed.
Rod Camm
ACPET CEO
ACPET CEO