The Australian Government has paid early childhood education and care providers about $9.7 million in new subsidies to help staff and educators get through training.
The government began paying two new subsidies in September:
- the professional development subsidy, which covers 2 days of training – up to 15.2 hours
- the paid practicum subsidy, which can be used to give educators paid leave while they undertake their practicum.
This financial year, those eligible are:
- services and staff in regional, remote and very remote locations
- First Nations services and educators.
More than 1,200 services have received payments to support more than 15,000 educators.
Completed applications for the second quarter of payments for the subsidies must be received by Friday 17 November. Once approved, payments will be made in early December.
Read more in the subsidy guidelines.
There will continue to be subsidy payments up until and including the 2026–27 financial year.
Eligible providers should have received information via DocuSign in July.
If you did not receive this or have other questions, email us at ECECWorkforce@education.gov.au