Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr Anne Aly MP has announced an expansion of the Early Childhood Workforce package to support early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers to offer professional development opportunities to staff.
There are 2 subsidies available under the expanded package, including:
- the professional development subsidy which helps qualified staff complete training
- the paid practicum subsidy which helps early childhood teachers and educators in training complete practicums.
The paid practicum wage subsidy will assist educators undertaking a Diploma of Early Childhood Education or relevant post-graduate Early Childhood Teaching qualifications, in addition to those completing an Early Childhood Teaching qualification. The subsidy has been doubled to up to eight weeks per semester.
All ECEC providers in metropolitan, rural, regional and remote Australia are now eligible to apply.
Minister for Early Childhood Education, the Hon Dr Anne Aly MP said:
“We’re supporting the early learning sector in a range of ways, including through making it easier to access training and professional development opportunities and provisioning funding to contribute towards a wage increase.
“A sustainable early childhood education and care workforce is a vital step towards building a universal early learning and care system that works for children no matter their background.
“This is about ensuring workers in feminised industries, such as early childhood education and care, can seize opportunities to progress their careers.”
The government is investing $72.4 million in professional development opportunities for ECEC providers until 2026-27.
In the first year of the program in 2023, the professional development subsidy supported approximately 23,500 educators through a $12.56 million investment and the paid practicum subsidy supported around 750 educators through a $3.2 million investment.
Round 1 applications for 2024 are open and close on 20 September 2024. A second round of applications will open in January 2025.
To find out more and apply, visit Professional development opportunities.