More on the $3000 Skills Training Vouchers

A PWF reader queries the value of these vouchers

In our January post Business & Works Skills Vouchers for up to $3000 and also in an October post last year, $3000 hospitality skills training vouchers, we reported the federal government’s new $3000 training grants for workers over 25 who haven’t completed year 12, aimed in part to alleviate the hospitality industry skills crisis.

Well, the program was launched at the start of the year but it already has its detractors.

PWF reader, Susan Ritchie left a comment earlier this month doubting the success of the grants program based on the limitations of eligibility in applying for the grant.

The problem Susan sees is that workers can only receive the grant if they enrol in courses up to the level of Certificate II, a qualification she sees, from her past experience, as “worth nothing to an employer.”

“Why can’t Australians be given the opportunity to do better or seek a higher qualification with these types of grants instead of being limited to what one can do with it?”

We spoke to a staff member of the Department of Education & Science who told us that the Work Skills Vouchers were only really intended to get people placed into new apprenticeships.

Apparently most of the 300 approved Certificate II courses are pre-apprenticeship training courses, the sort you would do to make you more marketable to a future employer taking on new apprentices.

Which brings us to the question….

Do these Certificate II courses actually make you more likely to be accepted into an apprenticeship, or are they as Susan Ritchie has found in her experience, “worth nothing” to an employer?

If so, what are they lacking?