Businesses in Australia willing to take on new apprentices will have access to a 50 per cent government subsidy, it has been announced.

The government is making a total of A$1.2 billion (£665 million) available to support any business or group training organisation that employs an apprentice on or after today with a subsidy of 50 per cent of wages - up to A$7,000 (£3,900) per quarter - between October 2020 and September 2021.

It is thought that the boost will support 100,000 new apprentices across Australia. 

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Background: Apprenticeships ‘best training model’, says EU official

Earlier this year in England, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that businesses could receive a cash bonus for hiring apprentices: £2,000 for an apprentice under the age of 25 and for any over the ages of 25, £1,500.

Coronavirus: Supporting apprenticeships

However, last month in the House of Commons, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said Mr Sunak needed to “get serious on training and skills”.

Commenting on the new jobs support scheme, she said: “Will the scheme incentivise training and retraining? The German scheme does, and Labour has called for a UK version to include incentives for training, but that’s missing here.”

Internationally, the support apprentices have received and continue to receive varies from country to country. Senior EU Commission official João Santos told Tes that Denmark is paying 75 per cent of the salary of apprentices upfront, while France was mobilising 1 billion euros (£908 million), and Germany 500 million euros, “mainly to support SMEs for apprenticeship training”.

He said that he believed the apprenticeship model was the best way to equip people for the labour market and that he was worried about the impact the coronavirus would have on apprenticeships.