VICTORIANS “FIRST IN LINE” FOR NEW JOBS

The 2018/19 Victorian State Budget, released on Tuesday 1 May, shines a light on Victoria’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector with an $828M investment in TAFE and training in addition to headline spending on transport infrastructure and education.

Victoria is growing. Rapidly. In the last financial year, the population grew by 2.3 per cent – the highest growth rate in Australia – and against the backdrop of a national economic growth rate of 2.0 per cent in 2016/17, Victoria’s economy stood out with a growth rate of 3.3 per cent.

Alongside this rapid growth comes jobs creation driven by increased demand for skilled workers. In 2016/17 there were more than 117,000 new jobs created in Victoria, making up more than 70 per cent of jobs growth throughout the nation.

The good news for apprentice and trainee job seekers is that the state government aims to make Victorians “first in line” for these new jobs.

Investment in skills and training includes $172M to make TAFE free for priority courses, providing job seekers from any background with a springboard into a diverse range of apprenticeship and non-apprenticeship career pathways.

Find out which TAFE courses are included – Free Tafe

In addition, three TAFE facilities in regional Victoria will receive a $120M upgrade, modernising and improving facilities for students in Bendigo, Morwell and Sale.

Other initiatives put forward by this budget include:

• $304M for additional training to create 30,000 new training places and meet increased industry demand for trained graduates
• $49.8M for the new Head Start Apprenticeships and Traineeships program making more opportunities available to secondary school students
• $44M to re-introduce trade papers, modernise apprenticeship learning materials and introduce independent assessments
• $25.9M to improve the quality of secondary vocational pathways

For more information on the 2018/19 Victorian Budget visit: www.budget.vic.gov.au

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