Lobby group advocate for benefits to address placement poverty for university and TAFE students

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Thousands of universities and TAFE students training to be teachers, nurses and midwives are among a handful of undergraduates who will be paid for practical placements. Lobby groups have been pushing the commonwealth for benefits in a bid to address a phenomenon known as placement poverty.

Transcript

00:00It is a Commonwealth PRAC payment, they're calling it, so it is a federal payment of

00:06about $320 a week for students that are studying, teaching, nursing and social work and midwifery,

00:13but only if they meet the means testing requirements.

00:16So it's actually quite a small portion of students, so if you have a partner or you

00:21don't undertake paid work that usually funds your university degree, then you won't be

00:27eligible.

00:28Okay, can you explain then why this was necessary?

00:33I guess it's unpack what placement poverty exactly is.

00:38Well, like any other kind of extreme poverty, people have been reporting to us that they've

00:43been sleeping in parks, in their car, people have been having serious health problems from

00:49the stress of working a 40 hour placement and they're working an additional 30 or 40 hours

00:54just to pay for general weekly expenses.

00:59So it's a pretty excruciating experience, particularly for people that are training for really valuable

01:05roles that we actually can't and no one can function without.

01:08Everyone needs a nurse, everyone needs a radiologist, everyone needs a social worker at some point

01:14in their life. And it's kind of a bit ridiculous having this conversation in 2025 that people are

01:22doing work but not being paid for it.

01:24So this is if you say you're training to be a nurse or a teacher or a midwife, you are

01:28placed in facilities, whether they be hospitals or schools or whatever, and you are expected

01:33to learn and train on the job without being paid. That is what placement poverty is a result of.

01:40But the government today is announcing it's estimating 68,000 higher education students,

01:46around 5,000 VET students or TAFE students will now be able to access this means tested support

01:52each year. That's a fair chunk of people that will benefit from this.

01:55Yeah, that's a fantastic start. And we're really proud of all the students that have

01:59really tirelessly advocated whilst doing university, whilst doing placement in order to get this far.

02:05But it still leaves a lot of people in the dust in terms of payments. Many fields still aren't covered by the payment.

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