Carol Ey
Skilling Australians Fund
The centrepiece of the Government’s announcements on skills
training in the 2017–18 Budget is the proposed creation of the Skilling Australians
Fund (‘the Fund’).[1] The Government will
provide $261.2 million in 2017–18 for this Fund, with additional funding of
up to $390.0 million per year being provided from the levy to be applied to the
temporary and permanent skilled migration programs (for more details on the
levy see the Budget Review 2017–18 article ‘Immigration and border
protection overview’).[2] These budget
measures are expected to provide total funding of $1.5 billion over four years.
The Fund, together with matching funding from the states and
territories, will support up to 300,000 more apprentices, trainees and higher
level skilled workers over the next four years. Priority will be given to
apprenticeships and traineeships in: industries and sectors of future growth;
occupations in high demand; occupations with a reliance on skilled migration
pathways; and, regional and rural areas.
A new National Partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund
will be established to distribute the Fund. State and territory access to
funding will be dependent on meeting eligibility criteria developed by the
Commonwealth, including matching funding and providing up-to-date data on
performance and spending.[3] This National Partnership
will replace the National Partnership on Skills Reform, which provided some $1.7 billion
to the states and territories over the five-year period 2012–13 to 2016–17,
including $516.3 million in 2016–17.[4]
While the Fund will prioritise apprenticeships and
traineeships in occupations with a reliance on skilled migration pathways, of
the 68,000 visas granted in 2016 under the 457 program, only 11,600 were at
skill levels 2 and 3, which represent trade-level and equivalent qualifications,
while 24,300 were at skill level 1, which is associated with completion of a bachelor
degree or higher qualification.[5] Similarly, only 17.7% (10,780)
of the places in the skilled migration stream in 2015–16 were technicians and trades
workers, compared to 64.7% in the professional stream.[6]
This suggests that the new Fund will only go a small way to removing reliance
on migration to fill skill shortages.
The imposition of a levy on the skills migration streams
will require legislative approval, while the new National Partnership will need
the agreement of the states and territories.
Other program changes
Industry specialist mentoring
service
The Government will provide $60.0 million over two years to
establish an industry specialised mentoring service to complement existing
services under the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network. The program is
expected to provide support to some 45,000 apprentices and trainees,
particularly during their first two years of training, in order to improve
completion rates.
An evaluation of the former Australian Apprenticeships
Mentoring Program (AAMP), which was ceased in the 2014–15 Budget, suggested
that, on average, mentoring programs improved retention rates by around five
per cent, and were particularly important in improving the retention of those
most at risk of non-completion.[7]
Implementation of this program will not require legislation.
Program efficiencies
Savings of $112.4 million over five years from 2017–18 will
be achieved through ‘efficiencies’ in the Skills for Education and Employment program,
which provides language, literacy and numeracy training to eligible job
seekers. The Government expects the program to continue to meet its objective
of training 22,500 people.
Savings of $43.3 million over six years will be achieved by reducing
uncommitted funding from the Industry Workforce Training (IWT) program. The IWT
funds projects such as the Skills Service Organisations, Alternative
Arrangements for Apprenticeship Delivery, the Programme for the International
Assessment of Adult Competencies and Adult Learners’ Week.
These changes do not require legislation.
Changes to student support
arrangements
Reduced access to social security
payments
The Government proposes to limit access to student payments
for vocational education and training (VET) courses at diploma level and above,
generating savings of $181.2 million over five years from 2016–17. At present,
all students undertaking accredited full-time VET courses at a registered
training provider are eligible for student income support.[8]
For those studying at a diploma level or above, it is proposed that access will
be limited to those students who are studying courses approved for VET Student
Loans.[9]
Existing student payment recipients will be grandfathered
for the duration of their current course. The measure will commence from 1
January 2018. It is estimated that 5,000 students each year will no longer
qualify for student payments.[10]
Proposed changes to the Pensioner Education
Supplement (PES) and the Education Entry Payment (EdEP) are expected to achieve
savings of $94.7 million over five years. PES is available to recipients of
certain income support payments who are undertaking at least 25% of a full-time
study load, with half rate payment for students with study loads below 50%. The
EdEP is a one-off payment for recipients of some payments when they commence
full- or part-time study.
Under the new arrangements, the payment rates
will be aligned with the study loads undertaken by recipients. In addition, PES
will not be paid during semester breaks and end-of-year holidays. The
Government has also announced that it will not be proceeding with measures to
cease both the PES and EdEP, which were proposed in the 2014–15 Budget.[11]
Both these measures will require legislation.
Changes to loan repayment
arrangements
VET Student Loans and Trade Support Loans are subject to the
same repayment arrangements as loans under the Higher Education Loan Program
(HELP). Therefore they will be affected by the proposed changes to HELP
repayment thresholds and payment rates. For more information on these changes
see the article ‘Higher education reform’ elsewhere in the Budget Review
2017–18.[12]
[1].
Information and figures in this brief have been taken from the
following document unless otherwise sourced: Australian Government, Budget measures:
budget paper no. 2: 2017–18, 2017.
[2].
J Phillips and H Spinks, ‘Immigration
and border protection overview’, Budget Review 2017–18, Research
paper series, 2016–17, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2017.
[3].
Australian Government, Federal financial
relations: budget paper no. 3: 2017–18, 2017, p. 35.
[4].
Council of Australian Governments (COAG), National
Partnership Agreement on skills reform, COAG, 2012, p. 10.
[5].
Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), ‘Temporary Work
(Skilled) visa (subclass 457) Programme’, data.gov.au website. For an
explanation of the skill levels see Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Information Paper: ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard
Classification of Occupations, cat. no. 1221.0, ABS, Canberra, 2005.
[6].
DIBP, Migration
Programme report: Programme year to 30 June 2016, DIBP, n.d.,
p. 12.
[7].
Deloitte Access Economics, Australian
Apprenticeships Mentoring Package interim evaluation, report for
the Department of Industry, Canberra, June 2014.
[8].
Student
Assistance (Education Institutions and Courses) Determination 2009 (No. 2)
[9].
Approved courses are listed in the VET Student Loans
(Courses and Loan Caps) Determination 2016.
[10].
Department of Social Services (DSS), Welfare—other
measures, Factsheet, DSS, Canberra, May 2017, p. 5.
[11].
Australian Government, Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2014–15, 2014.
[12].
C Ey, ‘Higher
education reform’, Budget Review 2017–18, Research paper series,
2016–17, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2017.
All online articles accessed May 2017.
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