Professional Development and Paid Practicum Subsidy program

Overview

On 3 May 2023, the Australian Government announced the Professional Development and Paid Practicum Subsidy Program (program) as part of the 2023-24 Budget. The program is one of a number of urgent actions to help support the skills and training of early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators by expanding access to quality professional development. For the Professional Development stream, funding of $12.8 million is available in 2023-24. The objective of the program is to support up to 22,000 early childhood educators, early childhood teachers and directors (centre managers) to undertake professional development for up to two days. The amount of the subsidy for this stream will be calculated based on a flat daily rate (calculated based on current July 2022 award rates) with rates for early childhood educators, early childhood teachers and Directors. For the Paid Practicum stream, the objective of the program is to support up to 2,500 early childhood educators in target areas to complete their formal training towards an early childhood teacher degree qualification or postgraduate studies. In 2023-24, funding of $11.4 million is available.  The amount of the subsidy for this stream will be calculated as a flat weekly rate based on Level 3.4 (Diploma) of the Children’s Services Award (2010). Across both streams in 2023-24, the program is particularly targeted to services and educators in regional, remote or very remote communities and Firs Nations educators and services. The guidelines for the program apply to 2023-24 only.  New guidelines for 2024-25 onwards will be released following consultation with stakeholders and agreement by the Minister for Early Childhood Education.