Current Grant Opportunity View - GO6307

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.

There are 4 elements of eligibility for the program:

1.   Basic Eligibility

Eligibility for Services is the same across both program streams. All Services must be receiving the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to be considered eligible.

2.   Service types

To be eligible for this program, a Service must be receiving CCS (as eligibility will be determined through CCS records). This includes long day care, family day-care, in-home care, centre-based day care and outside school hours care services. Preschool and kindergarten services are not eligible to receive this Subsidy.

3.   Location

The Subsidy is targeted to Services that undertake service delivery in several remote location. 

Remoteness categories are determined by the ABS. More details can be found at: Remoteness Structure | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)  

4.   First Nations Status

First Nations-owned and controlled Services are eligible regardless of location, as defined in Priority Reform Two of the National Agreement Closing the Gap

2023-24 to 2025-26

Potentially eligible applicants will be sent a letter by the Department and an application form will be provided to complete.