Last year the Australian Government released as part of its stimulus for business package a wage reimbursement scheme. In short, hire an eligible worker and put them as an apprentice or trainee and the business could receive 50% of that employees wage back. 100,000 places were offered and in February 2020 these were exhausted – ending the scheme.
On the 9th of March this subsidy was extended with 70,000 new places and up to 1 year.
What does this mean for businesses?
If you are looking to hire a new employee, by simply placing them in a traineeship or apprenticeship you may be able to receive a 50% wage subsidy as well as additional funding from both your state and the federal government when they complete.
Who is an apprentice or trainee?
This term, whilst having connotations of a young entrant, is not limited by age, in fact a third of applicants were over 35. Simply put, it’s someone new who the employer will be required to upskill. Each state has a list of eligible qualifications, these include Business, Administration, Leadership and many more technical qualifications. To access the wage subsidy the employee must be enrolled in a qualification on the respective state’s list.
What does this mean for me and what’s the process?
Well, if you’re hiring a new person, consider placing them in a traineeship and having part of their wage subsided.
Let’s run through a quick example:
Your business is hiring a new supervisor. You look through the qualifications on your state’s list and find that the Certificate IV in Leadership Management suits the role which the person will be undertaking.
You sign the new employee on a traineeship – this is a simple process initiated through a local apprenticeship provider (you’ve got a few options here and some states have a specific panel of providers). After that you contact a Registered Training Organisation who is able to offer the qualification you need. You work out the units which will work for you and that’s pretty much it.
Each quarter you are able to claim half of the trainees wage from the government. This is capped at $7,000 per quarter per person.
This post is just for information purposes and not to be acted upon, if you would like information based on your own circumstances contact us at [email protected] and we’ll be glad to help.
