Early childhood to feature in more fee-free training places for South Australia

Freya Lucas

Mar 15, 2023

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More than 2,000 additional fee-free places will be made available in South Australia in areas of high demand, including early childhood education and care (ECEC).

The Vocational Education and Training (VET) places will now be on offer for South Australians wanting training through private training providers – with health and social care courses (including ECEC) receiving the largest number of training places.

$8.8 million has been allocated by the government to support private training providers to deliver fee-free training places in key sectors for priority groups following the Federal and State governments signing a landmark 12-month Skills Agreement late last year to address the skills shortage and deliver fee-free TAFE and more VET places for South Australians. The agreement will inject more than $65 million into the South Australian training and skills sector.

An important part of South Australia’s negotiation for the agreement was ensuring private training providers were also allocated a portion of the fee-free places in priority areas, which is not the case in some other states.

After a competitive application process, 38 private training providers will soon be delivering training across a range of courses in areas such as nursing, aged and disability care, health care and childcare (sic.), hospitality and tourism, construction, agriculture, defence and manufacturing and education.

These 2,050 places are alongside fee free training already underway in TAFE SA. Fee-free VET will better match training with skills shortages identified through the skills priority list, driving enrolments in key sectors.

A list of the training providers, locations and the 30 courses on offer will be available on the Skills Finder website later this month.

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