The Rudd Government will invest $187 million to create an additional 56,000 new training places this financial year to help keep the economy strong during the global financial crisis.
This decisive action is part of the Government's $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy to strengthen productivity and protect the Australian economy from the global financial crisis.
This funding injection will:
* effectively double the Productivity Places Program from 57,000 to 113,000 in 2008-09; and
* take the Government's total investment in training places to more than $400 million since April 2008.
With a slowing global economy, the Rudd Government is committed to supporting and training jobseekers to ensure all those who can benefit from extra help are able to access these places.
Increasing productivity and the skills agenda are central to the Government's economic platform. These new places will help maintain the momentum the program has generated and provide more skilled labour to meet the needs of industry.
The Rudd Government made tough decisions in the budget process to build up a large budget surplus to act as a buffer in tough economic times.
Today those tough economic times have arrived and the Government is now acting decisively to use the surplus to strengthen the Australian economy.
There has been a huge demand for training since the Productivity Places Program began in April, with more than 50,000 jobseekers enrolled and over 11,000 having already completed their training in areas of skill shortage.
Almost 1,000 jobseekers who have been referred for training by employment service providers have already obtained jobs. This is an excellent outcome for such a new program.
The new places will be available at Certificate II, III and IV levels, with 10,000 places to be allocated as ‘Structural Adjustment Places' to provide specific retraining opportunities and targeted support to displaced workers.
These new places will take the Rudd Government's total commitment to the Productivity Places Program to more than $2 billion with more than 700,000 new training places to be created over five years.