Effect of school-based apprenticeships on student payments 010-07010160

In some cases a young person will, as part of their secondary schooling, be undertaking some components of an apprenticeship. These school-based apprenticeships do not prevent a person from receiving one of the Services Australia administered payments for students unless the apprenticeship is full-time (that is, 35 hours or more per week).

Note: a full-time Australian Apprentice is not considered a student. Australian Apprentices may be eligible for ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance (YA) as an Australian Apprentice.

The young person would remain eligible for assistance while they are still undertaking a sufficient study load in their secondary studies. It would be up to the school to determine whether or not they are still considered to be a full time student.

School-based apprenticeships and Aboriginal School Based Traineeships (ASBT) are part of a federally funded scheme which is handled by Australian Apprenticeship Support Network providers.

Students involved in the Western Australian (WA) ASBT are eligible for ABSTUDY assistance. ASBT is considered to be a part-time traineeship and the wage received is for employment and not education purposes. The wage received is counted as income under the personal income test where the student is 16 years or more.

ASBT is co-ordinated through the WA Department of Training and Workforce Development with assistance from the WA Department of Education. A central element of ASBT is the involvement of the Aboriginal community through parents and Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness (ASSPA) committees.

ASBT objectives

The ASBT programme was developed to achieve 4 objectives for young Aboriginal people:

• improve the school to work transition rates
• provide post-compulsory students with access to a broad range of vocational competencies
• increase the relevance of education and training to Aboriginal young people
• develop a co-ordinated, strategic program through interagency collaboration

Elements of ASBT

• The minimum age of participation is 15 years
• Eligibility for ASBT is not dependent on eligibility for ABSTUDY
• Students participate in 15 hours of paid work per week

The Indigenous Youth Careers Pathways (ICYP) Programme is administered through contracted service providers and facilitates school-based traineeships for Indigenous students to support their transition to work. The IYCP provides school-based traineeships to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years 11 and 12 (and in some cases, Year 10) through contracted service providers.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is responsible for the program.