Australian apprentices and bosses eligible for Additional Identified Skills Shortage (AISS) payment

The government added an incentive to support up to 80,000 additional apprenticeships over five years as part of the 2019-20 budget handed down in April 2019.The Additional Identified Skills Shortage (AISS) payment aims to boost the supply of skilled workers in occupations experiencing national skills shortages.
RELATED: Tradie’s huge payout after threesome
RELATED: Detail in tradie’s lunch goes viral
The incentive offers eligible apprentices $1000 a year after commencing their apprenticeship and $1000 when the apprenticeship is completed.
Eligible employers of the apprentices will also receive a payment – $2000 at the 12 month point from the start of a new apprenticeship and an additional $2000 when the worker completes the qualification.
The AISS payments is additional to any payments the apprentice or employer may be eligible for under existing Australian government programs.
For an apprentice and their employer to be eligible for the AISS payment, the apprentice must be new to the employer and must have commenced a Certificate III or IV level qualification on or after July 1, 2019.
The program is available to eligible carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, bakers, pastrycooks, hairdressers, vehicle painters, mechanics, wall and floor tilers, bricklayers, stonemasons, arborists and tradespeople in airconditioning and refrigeration.
Employers will only be eligible to claim the AISS payment for apprentices who qualify as being additional, which is over and above the employer’s usual apprentice intake. This rule is to encourage a genuine increase in the supply of Australian apprenticeships to address skills shortages.
Apprentices who are new to their employer and are undertaking a certificate III or IV qualification leading to one of the listed occupations is eligible, regardless of if they are additional.