Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is announcing an election policy that will give a $10,000 cash bonus funding for Apprentices who work in residential construction.
The scheme would pay apprentices in five $2,000 instalments over the duration of their apprenticeship, additional to any pay from their employers. The cost to the budget would be $626.9 million, with funding already set aside in the mid-year budget update. That would be enough to fund just over 60,000 apprentices.
The announcement is welcomed by Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) particularly as it has long been part of our advocacy to Government to fast-track funding for vocational/ TAFE training and apprenticeships to rebuild our domestic skilled workforce.
“Investing in keeping apprentices on the tools can only strengthen the construction workforce at a time when Australia needs it more than ever,” said Oscar Stanley, UDIA National Vice President.
“Right now we have a critically low skilled labour workforce in the development and construction sector. We need to ensure that training funding for tradies is combined with prioritising skilled-migrant visas for those who have house trade and building skills, so that we can address the low levels of housing supply,” said Oscar Stanley.
“UDIA strongly supports today’s announcement of investment designed to alleviate the impacts of the skills shortage, builds the capacity of critical industries and enables our industry to get on with the job of building the homes for the people of Australia,” said Mr Stanley.
–ends–
Media Enquiries:
Deanna Lane | Director, National Media & Communications | 0416 295 898 | media@udia.com.au