AS a part of the Federal Budget announcements last October, apprenticeships and traineeships were given a boost with funding available to employers of up to 50 per cent of the wage paid for 12 months (capped at $28,000, being $7000 per apprentice or trainee per quarter).

As part of the initial announcement, the program was capped to the first 100,000 places, and the trainee had to be signed up between October 5, 2020, and September 30, 2021.
As part of the federal budget announcement in March this year, the timeframe for the program has been extended to trainees or apprentices taken on before March 2022.
The cap of 100,000 places has also been removed.