Government fund for upskilling employees
Grant Types #4: Upskilling small business employees
(Post updated on September 23, 2020)
Nationally one of the largest sources of financial support for small businesses in financial assistance to train employees. These are known as Traineeships (non trade jobs) and Apprenticeships (trades jobs).
- Traineeships and Apprenticeships are formal agreements between the employer and the employee that enables the employees to be trained and qualified in the skills required to perform jobs like customer service or trades like plumbing.
- An employee can complete their apprenticeship or traineeship on a full time or part-time basis.
- Traditionally, apprenticeships are undertaken predominately in the blue-collar (trade) industries, and traineeships are conducted mostly in whitecollar (business and services) industries.
- Many franchisees hire new employees that are eligible to do a Traineeship, and these can be completed usually over a 6 to 12 month period of initial employment.
These programs require the business to agree to support the development of the necessary skills needed for the employee for their role. These skills usually are developed as part of a formal training process that is delivered over an agreed period and often takes place in the workplace.
Depending upon the circumstances of the business, employers may be eligible for between $1,500 and $4,000 per trainee to assist in the cost of delivering the required skills programs. Once the accredited training is complete, the funds become available to the employer.
In addition to the fee paid to the employer, there may also be savings in various State taxes like Payroll Tax available. In some industries, the award for that industry or role may also allow a lower trainee or apprenticeship wages paid given the investment in training made by the employer.
Example case study 1
A small insurance brokerage identified an opportunity to employ and train a new office administrator and identified $4,000 in funding to support this plan. The training program delivered a national business qualification in marketing to the new employee. It assisted the business in funding the skills development program for this new employee and support its growth strategy.
Example case study 2
A fast-growing Franchise system identified a qualification in workplace skills and customer service that would allow the employees to achieve a Certificate, quickly build knowledge and skills to perform well in the franchise and to enable the franchisee to pay for the training with the government traineeship funding.
