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Download NSW Budget 2024-25 Gender Equality Budget Statement V1.1
Current as of Tuesday, 18 June 2024.
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4. Economic opportunity and advancement
4.1 Improving access to education and training opportunities
2024-25 Budget Measures
$16.3 million
available in 2024-25 for fee free apprenticeships and traineeships
Women represent 12 per cent of apprentices and trainees in non-traditional trades.94
The NSW Government is committed to a society that enables everyone to realise their potential through training and education.
Equal access to education and training opportunities empowers individuals to secure employment and improve their economic outcomes.
Addressing gender inequality in segregated sectors begins in education and training. This involves encouraging women to participate in male dominated industries and encouraging men to participate in traditionally female dominated sectors through their educational choices.
University and VET courses often include a mandatory requirement to undertake unpaid placements. This can lead to ‘placement poverty,’ the financial stress that results from having to forego paid work or relocate away from home to meet these requirements.95
Placement poverty is highly gendered as placements are more often needed in the feminised sectors of care and teaching.96
The NSW Government is committed to rebuilding essential services facing critical shortages with allowances now available to Student Police Officers to study at the Goulburn Police Academy.
From March 2024, Student Police Officers will receive up to $30,894 over the 16-week study period. Current classes at the academy will also receive pro-rata scholarships. This measure will unlock opportunities for a more diverse range of recruits including mature age students, women – particularly women with families, and people from low-income households who simply can’t afford to study for four months with no income.
This Budget is also investing an additional $8.9 million in 2024-25, to bring the total investment up to $16.3 million, for fee free arrangements for apprenticeships and traineeships. The Fee Free Apprentices and Traineeships program will remove student fees of up to $2,000 for apprentices and up to $1,000 for trainees.
The NSW Government is committed to supporting students, by continuing the Bert Evans Apprentice Scholarship. The 2024 Bert Evans Apprentice Scholarships is a $2.25 million program, which will support 150 NSW apprentices experiencing financial or personal hardship while completing their work and training, with a $15,000 scholarship given over three years. Since 2014, the program has supported over 900 apprentices across NSW, including 275 female apprentices in trade occupations.