Building Australia’s Future Workforce

Skilling Australia’s Future Workforce — $3.0 billion over six years, including reform of the training system

Placing industry at the heart of the training effort

• $558 million in a new National Workforce
• Development Fund – partnering with industry to deliver more training outcomes designed to meet the needs of a growing economy
• An estimated 130,000 industry-focused training places
• Apprenticeships that work for more Australians
• $100 million to support new approaches to training to ensure skilled apprentices can gain their qualifications sooner
• $101 million for mentoring to support apprentices and trainees through to completion of their training, including funding to provide advice to prospective apprentices on the right trade for them Vocational education and training (VET) to meet the longer-term needs of the economy — $1.75 billion
• •Review the Commonwealth’s $1.4 billion per annum investment in the National Agreement on Skills and Workforce Development to secure reform outcomes and develop a whole‑of-government commitment to training
• • Additional investment of $1.75 billion over five years from 2012-13 under a new National Partnership with the states and territories, conditional on more ambitious reforms to make the VET system more transparent and productive

Building better skills for workforce participation

• • $143 million to provide 30,000 additional commencements for job seekers in the Language,

Literacy and Numeracy Program

• • $80 million for additional training places for single and teenage parents
• • $20 million to expand the Workplace English Language and Literacy program to support businesses who want to boost the basic employment skills of their workers
• • $20 million to ensure disadvantaged job seekers can access the Australian Apprenticeships Access Program

Participation through rewards, opportunities and responsibilities

Improving incentives in the tax system

• Increasing the amount of the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO) in people’s take home pay from week to week means more immediate and direct returns to work for over 6.5 million taxpayers who receive the LITO
• Phasing out the Dependent Spouse Tax Offset for people aged under 40 to improve participation incentives

Investing so more young Australians are earning or learning

• Increasing Family Tax Benefit Part A (at a cost of $772 million) to support the families of around 650,000 children over the next five years to stay in full‑time school or training
• Extending the ‘Earn or Learn’ requirements and eligibility for Youth Allowance (other) to unemployed youth aged 21, and increasing their rewards to work
• Providing $68 million for improved support services for young Australians

Rewarding and supporting single parents to engage in work

• Introducing a more generous income test for single parents on Newstart Allowance with school‑age children, which better supports part‑time work for 50,000 recipients
• Providing additional training, career advice and parenting support
• Making Parenting Payment eligibility more equitable

Supporting very long‑term job seekers

• Offering incentives for employers that provide new opportunities for around 35,000 very long-term unemployed people
• Introducing stronger participation requirements in activities to provide skills and experience to find work

More opportunities for people with disability

• Fast-tracking strengthened Disability Support Pension (DSP) assessment processes
• Introducing appropriate participation requirements for around 90,000 DSP recipients under 35 with some work capacity
• Allowing DSP recipients to work more hours and remain on DSP
• Providing 3,000 additional wage subsidies for people with disability

A new approach to addressing entrenched disadvantage in targeted locations

• Introducing new participation plans and support services for teenage parents in 10 locations with a view to an Australia‑wide rollout
• Introducing new participation requirements and supports for jobless families in 10 locations
• Extending income management to five additional locations to address the needs of people in disadvantaged areas
• Building integrated service delivery and trialling innovative ways to help disadvantaged locations through the Local Solutions Fund.

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