Unwinding the Pandemic with Stimulus!

17 Dec Unwinding the Pandemic with Stimulus!

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Covid-19 Employment assistance and subsidies

Government funding for small businesses plays a critical role in keeping the employment numbers up across the country. Accordingly, grants and support payments have been made available to help your workplace plan and successfully respond to post Covid-19 impact.

Here are a couple of the grants available for those small business employers who are seeking to hire or increase their workforce:

  • Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) Funding;
  • Jobs Victoria Fund.

Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) Funding

The Federal Government has allocated an additional $2.7 billion and expanded the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) wage subsidy – $1.2 billion to uncap the program and extend the wage subsidy period to 12 months from the date of commencement, as announced on 9 March 2021, and $1.5 billion to extend the commencement period for an additional six months from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The Government will ease the transition for all BAC eligible employers by providing transitional support for the second and third year of an Australian Apprenticeship through the Completing Apprenticeship Commencements (CAC) wage subsidy.

Businesses have an opportunity to attract new staff while keeping the employment costs down.

Who is eligible?

Your business or Group Training Organisation may be eligible for the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements and Completing Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidies if:

  • you engage an Australian Apprentice or trainee between 5 October 2020 and
    31 March 2022; and
  • this Australian Apprentice or trainee is undertaking a Certificate II or higher qualification and has a training contract that is formally approved by the state training authority.

Additional eligibility requirements will apply to existing workers.

For more information visit https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/boosting-apprenticeship-commencements

Jobs Victoria Fund

If you are a Victorian employer, the Jobs Victoria Fund can financially support you to employ people who have been most affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic – by hiring new staff or increasing hours for existing employees.

The Jobs Victoria Fund eligibility criteria changed on 16 November 2021 so that more businesses and employees are eligible.

Who is eligible?

To qualify for the subsidy, you must employ someone from at least one of the priority groups who have been most impacted by the pandemic:

If you meet all the eligibility criteria and supply the necessary information, you will receive funding, subject to the availability of funds and conditions.

  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people
  • jobseekers registered with a Jobs Victoria Mentor service
  • people unemployed for six months or more
  • newly arrived migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds
  • women aged 45 years and over
  • people seeking asylum/refugees
  • people with disability
  • single parents
  • veterans
  • men and people who do not identify as a woman aged 45 years and over
  • young people aged under 25
  • people previously or currently employed under the Working for Victoria initiative.

If you are an employer or other partner able to create larger numbers of jobs for priority groups, please visit Jobs Victoria Fund – Innovation Projects.

For more information please contact

Praba Ganeshan

P: +61 3 9853 3007

E: praba@aspirepartners.com.au