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