Having access to a great education – from early learning and schools, right through to universities and TAFE – is the ticket to a lifetime of opportunity.
Early childhood education
A good start in life means a strong early childhood education system. Child care has become too expensive, and too complicated. Labor will make childcare cheaper for families, and we’ll remove the barriers that are holding second income earners – mostly women – back from work. It's a win-win.
Helping our school kids bounce back after COVID
Under the Morrison Government, Australia has recorded our worst ever results in reading, science and maths. Australia is being left behind in the global education race. We need a Labor Government to stop the slide in student results
Labor will put every school on a path to its full and fair level of funding. As a starting point we have to make sure our kids can bounce back after COVID. Labor will deliver $440 million to schools for better ventilation, building upgrades, and mental health support.
We’ll make sure our schools are safe for learning with a Schools Upgrade Fund to improve air quality, build more outdoor classrooms, buy air purifiers and replace boarded-up windows and doors.
Every Australian school will benefit from Labor’s Student Wellbeing Boost, which will mean more school counsellors and psychologists, and extra funding for camps, excursions, as well as sporting and social activities that improve kids’ wellbeing. The average school will be $20,000 better off this year.
Fee Free TAFE
Hundreds of thousands of Australians will be able to earn a qualification or upskill with Labor’s fee free TAFE plan. Labor’s 465,000 fee free TAFE places will help people find decent jobs and help businesses find employees, by making fee free places available to students studying for industries with skills shortages.
This will help fix areas of skills shortages and fill future skills needs by training Australians in jobs including engineering, nursing, tech, and teaching.
Rebuilding skills and training
Under the Morrison Government there are 70,000 fewer apprenticeships and traineeships compared to when the Liberals came to office, and thousands of Australians are being turned away from university - the worst it’s been in many years.
This is happening at the same time we have around one and a half million workers looking for a job or more hours, and 17% of businesses reporting that they did not have sufficient employees for their operations.
Labor will guarantee that one in 10 workers on federally-funded projects will be an apprentice, trainee or cadet, and we’ll offer more university places because if you get the marks, you should be able to go to uni.
A stronger university system
An Albanese Labor Government will invest $481.7 million to deliver up to 20,000 extra university places over 2022 and 2023, making it easier for Australians to find a spot at university and get a job.
Labor will prioritise the new funding for universities which offer additional courses in priority areas like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, health and education, or where there are skills shortages.
Apprentices
Labor will train thousands of workers by ensuring one in ten workers on major government projects is an apprentice, trainee or cadet.
We will invest $100 million to support 10,000 New Energy Apprenticeships. Our investment will encourage apprentices to train in the new energy jobs of the future and provide them the support they need to complete their training.
Labor will also invest $10 million in a New Energy Skills Program to tailor skills training to meet the needs of new energy industries to make sure our kids benefit from the boom in renewables.
