The New Apprenticeships Incentives Programme encourages employers, through financial incentives, to open up genuine opportunities for employees to undertake genuine skills-based training.

NAAP assists eligible job seekers into New Apprenticeships, employment or further education and training. DEST has contracted SkillsPlus (Peninsula) Inc to manage NAAP in Gippsland.

Under current arrangements for the funding of New Apprenticeships through Group Training, Commonwealth contributions under the Joint Group Training Programme Policy Funding match those of the State/Territories on a dollar for dollar basis. The Commonwealth provides funds, through the Australian National Training Authority Agreement, to Group Training Organisations (GTOs).

Additionally, the Commonwealth administers TIP. This programme is designed to assist GTOs establish sustainable markets and provide additional New Apprenticeships opportunities in areas that have been identified by the Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments as critical, challenging and under serviced.

The WELL Programme provides funds to assist enterprises (or training providers that have obtained enterprise support) to provide workers with English language and literacy skills to help them meet their current and future employment and training needs. It particularly targets workers who are at risk of losing their jobs because of their low literacy skills. An employer contribution to the costs of the training is required. Some funds are also used for development of training resources and projects to encourage industry to become involved in language, literacy and numeracy.

From 1998 to 2001, the Literacy and Numeracy Programme offered literacy and numeracy training to eligible jobseekers across the country. The Advanced English for Migrants Programme offered training for eligible migrants in need of further English language training, often in vocationally specific areas or in preparation for further study.

The Literacy and Numeracy Programme and the Advanced English for Migrants Programme were combined in January 2002 to form the Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programme (LLNP). The LLNP provides more choice and flexibility for eligible job seekers, offering three streams of training: basic English language, advanced English language, and literacy and numeracy. Basic language is a new stream which was not available under the previous programmes.

The training is designed to lead to a measurable improvement in participants' language, literacy and numeracy competencies, thereby making them more competitive in the labour market, or enabling them to continue with further education or training. Training can also lead to partial recognition of overseas-earned qualifications for migrant participants.

Each participant is allocated between 120 and 400 hours of training, extending over a period of 20 to 52 weeks. Training can be undertaken on a part time or full time basis at between 6 and 20 hours a week. Up to 25 hours of the training allocation can be delivered in a one-to-one or small group situation (up to three clients) to help ease job seekers into a group or class situation or to give them a head start.

Face to face training is available throughout Australia in friendly groups. It is also available through distance education anywhere in Australia, for those job seekers who have carer responsibilities or do not have easy access to a face to face training site.

All participants' language, literacy and numeracy needs are professionally assessed before they are considered for training. If a job seeker is assessed as suitable for training, an individual training plan is developed for them and they are referred to training.

A competitive tender was conducted in late 2001 to select contracted providers to deliver assessment and training services under the new programme. The successful tenderers for the Gippsland electorate in 2002/03 were:

The Open Training and Education Network (OTEN) distance delivery arm of TAFE NSW provides all three streams of training (basic and advanced language and literacy and numeracy) by distance education throughout the electorate.

As part of the Australians Working Together package, the 2001-02 Commonwealth Budget established a Disability Coordination Officer (DCO) Programme. The DCOs will provide information, co-ordination and referral services for people with a disability interested in, or enrolled in post-school education and training. Two part-time DCOs have been allocated to cover the area of Victoria which includes the electorate of Gippsland. Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE has been contracted to provide DCO services in the area and details will be announced shortly. As part of the Australians Working Together package, over $1 million has been allocated to Victoria for 2003 to provide more training places for people with a disability.

The majority of schools programmes could provide assistance to the people in the electorate of Gippsland. These include programmes such as General Recurrent Grants, Establishment Grants, Capital Grants, Schools Short Term Emergency Assistance, Strategic Assistance for Improving Student Outcomes, Enterprise and Career Education, Country Areas, English as a Second Language - New Arrivals, Languages Other Than English, Job Pathways, Partnership Outreach Education Model (POEM) Pilot, Career and Transition (CAT) Pilot and Discovering Democracy. However, under programme administrative arrangements with the States, Territories and non-government education authorities, the Commonwealth only collects data by electorate for certain programmes. Information on these programmes is set out in reply to question 3.

The programmes funding the higher education sector under the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 and the Australian Research Council Act 2001 assist the people of Gippsland through the presence of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) jointly with the East Gippsland TAFE and at various research facilities in an around the electorate. The main programmes are:

Eligible individuals in the electorate are able to access the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), the Open Learning Deferred Payment Scheme (OLDPS), the Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS) and the Bridging for Overseas Trained Professional Loans Scheme.

In addition to people studying on-campus within the electorate, a number of people from the electorate would be accessing higher education institutions elsewhere.

DEST administers the Australian University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) Programme. Under the Programme, Australian higher education institutions compete annually for flat rate subsidies to subsidise the costs of their negotiating and monitoring, and of Australian students' participation in, student exchanges with specific characteristics with higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific. The student exchanges are required to be reciprocal, that is, include both in-coming and out-going students, involve tuition fee waiver and, under the exchanges, participating students receive credit towards their home university degrees for successful completion of overseas study.

Assistance is available to people living in the federal electorate of Gippsland under all the Indigenous programmes administered by the Department of Education, Science and Training. These programmes include the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP) and the Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) programme.

The aim of IESIP is to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students. IESIP provides funding under five discrete elements: Supplementary Recurrent Assistance (SRA); Targeted Outcomes Programme (TOPs); English as a Second Language - Indigenous Language Speaking Students (ESL - ILSS); and IESIP Away-from-base. IESIP also provides funding to progress the objectives of the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (NIELNS).

The IEDA programme has three elements and does not directly provide funding to schools. The elements of the programme are:

1. The Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness (ASSPA) programme funds parent committees in preschools and schools to undertake activities to improve education outcomes for Indigenous students and to increase the participation of the parents of Indigenous students in their children's education;

2. The Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ATAS) provides supplementary tuition and other study assistance to Indigenous students in primary and secondary schools, TAFE, University and formal training programmes; and

3. The Vocational and Educational Guidance for Aboriginals Scheme (VEGAS) funds projects on career information and study options, and projects which foster positive attitudes about participation in education for Indigenous school students.

Secondary and tertiary students may also be eligible for assistance under ABSTUDY, which is administered by Centrelink.

Commenced on 1 May 1998.

The delivery of NAAP commenced in January 1997.

Commonwealth contributions under Joint Group Training Programme Policy Funding, has been in place in some form since1980.

Contract was signed in April 2001 with Eastern Victorian Group Training.

Service delivery under the WELL Programme commenced in 1994.

Service delivery under the Advanced English for Migrants Programme commenced in the early 1990's; under the Literacy and Numeracy Programme in 1998; and under the LNNP in January 2002.

DCO Programme funds became available in July 2002, and it is anticipated that the contracted organisation will have the two DCOs in place in March 2003.

The Department can only provide this information for certain programmes as shown in the table below:

In general terms the current arrangements for supporting the higher education sector commenced in 1989.

DEST has provided funding for the Australian UMAP Programme annually since 1993.

The Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) programmes commenced in 1990 under the name of the Aboriginal Education Direct Assistance (AEDA) programme. The Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (then known as the Aboriginal Education Strategic Initiatives Programme) also began in 1990. These programmes grew out of existing initiatives. ABSTUDY commenced in 1969 for tertiary students and was extended to secondary school students in 1970.

Funding provided:

1999-00 $2,726,432

2000-01 $3,717,795

2001-02 $4,760,589

1999-00 $131,250.00

2000-01 $40,625.00

2000-02 $228,125.00

Commonwealth contributions under the Joint Group Training Programme Policy Funding were provided to Eastern Victorian Group Training Inc:

1999-00 $81,852.00

2000-01 $103,792.50

2001-02 $93,404.00

and Gippsland Group Training:

1999-00 $151,135.50

2000-01 $175,707.50

2001-02 $212,713.00

Eastern Victorian Group Training Inc:

1999-00 Nil

2000-01 $43,693.65

2001-02 $54,056.48

1999-00:

2000-01: Nil

2001-02:

The Literacy and Numeracy Programme made the following payments to the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE, the contracted provider in the Gippsland electorate:

1999-00 $92,114.40

2000-01 $70,320.80

2001-02 $78,559.70

Funding for the Advanced English for Migrants Programme was provided, on a calendar year basis, as a specific purpose payment to each State and Territory. The majority of courses were provided in metropolitan areas. No courses were provided in the electorate of Gippsland during the years 1999-00 to 2001-02.

There was no DCOP prior to 2002.

The following table provides funding for the electorate of Gippsland. Figures are reported on programme calendar year as it is not possible to provide these by financial year.

*Estimates only, not final figures.

Commonwealth funding for government schools is distributed by the State and Territory Government and the Commonwealth does not collect information on the allocation to individual electorates.

The following table provides funding for the electorate of Gippsland by financial year.

Funding under these programmes is provided to institutions as a whole. It is the responsibility of the institution to allocate it to campuses and activities. It is therefore not possible to provide this information at the electorate level. On a calendar year basis RMIT received the following funding through DEST:

Information on recipients of HECS, OLDPS and PELS is not available at the level of electorates.

As advised earlier, RMIT University received funding under the Australian UMAP Programme as follows:

(a) in the 1999-2000 financial year (the 2000 round of the Programme) - $77,300 to support four projects;

(b) in the 2000-01 financial year (the 2001 round of the Programme) - $167,500 to support five projects;

(c) in the 2001-02 financial year (the 2002 round of the Programme) - $84,500 to support four projects.

As previously advised, the only project that can be related to nursing and therefore is for students studying at the Gippsland campus of RMIT University is one of the projects supported in the 2002 round of the Programme. It is described in more detail below:

Funding totalling $32,000 to cover the following:

Information on funding is not available at the electorate level.

For Incentives and Personal Benefits $424.2 million with a further $30.8 million from Additional Estimates.

$8.814 million.

Figures not available.

$29,113.87.

$12.2 million.

$34.4 million

$1.228 million.

Below is a summary table of funding for Commonwealth programmes for schools in the 2003 programme year (extract from the Quadrennial Administrative Guidelines - 2001 to 2004). Where the legislation provides for per capita amounts, an estimated level of funding has been provided. It is not possible to provide these figures by financial year.

Higher Education Funding Act 1988 and Australian Research Council Act 2001 appropriations are on a calendar year basis. The current total appropriations under the Acts for 2002 and 2003 are:

HEFA

ARCA

Total actual Commonwealth funding to higher education through the EST portfolio (including HEFA appropriations, ARCA appropriations, HECS and annual appropriations) is $6176.9 m in 2002 and $6417.2 m in 2003.

Note: This does not include funding from programmes such as Cooperative Research Centres Programmes and the Major National Research Facilities Programme.

$1.4 million has been appropriated for the Australian UMAP Programme in 2002-03 financial year.

The nationally appropriated funding for the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Programme (IESIP) for 2003 is $138,393,000. The nationally appropriated funding for the Indigenous Education Direct Assistance (IEDA) programme for 2002-03 is $64,929,000. The nationally appropriated funding for ABSTUDY for 2002-03 is $83,473,000.

No limit has been set for the electorate of Gippsland - all employers of New Apprenticeships in the region has access to the funds appropriated for the programme if eligible under the New Apprenticeships Incentives Programme Guidelines (1 September 2000).

A maximum of $144,250 has been appropriated and approved for the electorate of Gippsland in 2002-03 for NAAP.

Figure not available.

$29,113.87 has been allocated to the electorate of Gippsland in 2002-03.

No WELL funds have been allocated in the Gippsland electorate in 2002-03.

There are two contracted service providers in the electorate: East Gippsland Institute of TAFE and Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE. Monies are paid to providers as services are delivered and, therefore, dependent on demand from job seekers. So far this financial year, over $76,000 has been paid to face to face providers in the electorate.

DCOP funding for 2002-03 was $80,000 (GST exclusive).

The following table provides appropriated funding for the electorate of Gippsland based on 2003 programme year. It is not possible to provide these figures by financial year.

*Estimates only, not final figures.

The following table provides programme funding appropriated in the electorate of Gippsland in 2002-03.

It is not possible to provide this information at the electorate level.

RMIT University has applied for funding under the 2003 round of the Australian UMAP Programme (the 2002-03 financial year). Selection outcomes are expected to be available shortly.

Information on funding is not available at the electorate level.