University students to receive financial support for unpaid placements

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Some students will soon be eligible for financial support from the federal government to undertake unpaid placements required to graduate from their university courses.

Transcript

00:00This is a pre-budget announcement that'll be pretty welcome news for some university

00:06students.

00:07These are payments targeting students in three particular sectors, nursing, teaching and

00:12social work.

00:13Now, degrees in all of those areas require significant practical placements in order

00:17to get those qualifications, hundreds of hours across a degree, and this is all unpaid work.

00:22So there's been a concern for quite some time that that fairly onerous requirement to do

00:27such significant work unpaid has seen some students drop out of these courses altogether.

00:33They simply can't afford to do this unpaid work and often give up their part-time or

00:37casual job in the meantime to get those qualifications.

00:41All three of those sectors have a pretty significant demand for graduates to be heading into those

00:46industries as well.

00:47So the government says it has listened to those concerns, it's now responding and offering

00:51these new payments of $320 or so a week.

00:55This will kick in from July 1 next year, so 2025.

00:59It will be means tested too.

01:01The government says this is just some financial support to try and help those students and

01:05keep them in these qualifications, in these degrees.

01:08This has prompted questions this morning though as to why these specific sectors and not others

01:13that have also very similar onerous practical requirements too.

01:18The education minister, Jason Clare, had that question put to him this morning.

01:22Here's a bit of what he had to say.

01:24What's said is this is where we go first.

01:27My reckoning is having a look at the report, they said look at teaching, early education,

01:31nursing, midwifery, as well as social work.

01:34So that's where we're focused first.

01:35They're all very female-dominated professions, that's an observation.

01:40And I guess another observation is about 60% of students at uni are women.

01:45And these are such important jobs, they're jobs where not everybody who starts a degree

01:49finishes it.

01:50We're in a school today, only one in two people who start a teaching degree finish

01:54it.

01:55You know, part of the reason for that is the course, reforming the course.

01:59Part of the reason is the challenges of paying the bills while you're doing the prac.

02:03And so Tom, the budget just over a week away and there is some unexpected money flowing

02:07in.

02:08Yeah, and this is becoming a bit of a familiar story, Gemma, a week or so out from the budget.

02:12The government announces it's come across a few extra tens of billions of dollars, $25

02:17billion in this case, over the next five years flowing into the government's coffers, primarily

02:23due to higher commodity prices, which has led to higher corporate tax take and also

02:29a stronger economy leading to a higher income tax take as well.

02:33We saw this before the past two budgets as well.

02:36They were higher upgrades in those cases, more than $100 billion in both cases.

02:41But the government says this is still welcome.

02:43However, the Treasurer is pushing a bit of a jewel message a week out from the budget,

02:47saying there are spending pressures that need to be addressed.

02:51Money will have to be spent in some areas of urgent need.

02:54So we'll see what he's referring to there on budget night.

02:57But there is also a need for financial restraint to try and keep a lid on inflation, which

03:01remains a problem across the economy.

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