National Youth Participation Requirement

• The NSW Education Amendment Act 2009 implementing the National Youth Participation Requirement received assent on 19 May 2009 with a commencement date of 1 January 2010.
• The Education Act Amendment (School Attendance) Act which received assent on 3 November 2009 complements the changes to the school leaving age incorporated in the NSW Education Amendment Act 2009.  Under the amendments, the NSW Department of Education and Training is able to seek information on the causes of non-attendance and convene conferences of parents, education authorities and other Government and non-government agencies to help develop an attendance plan. These measures are designed to reduce the need to proceed to court action but for chronic cases that do end up in court, magistrates will be able to order parents to attend rehabilitation programs or call in other relevant Government agencies to intervene.
• A comprehensive communications strategy for school students, parents, employers and schools has been implemented.
• A cross-portfolio steering committee has developed an implementation plan for the new National Youth Participation Requirement to support retention of young people up to the age of 17 in education, training or work.

Education/training entitlement for 15-24 year olds

TAFE NSW

• ALL TAFE NSW institutes have been briefed on the National Partnership Agreement for Youth Attainment and Transitions, in particular the training entitlements for 15-19 and 20-24 year olds.
• Posters displayed at enrolment will carry the message: “Young people aged 15-24 should be engaged full-time in education, training or employment”.
• TAFE NSW institutes are implementing a NSW Government funded initiative, The Learning Guarantee, for young people up to the age of 18 who do not have Year 12 and are not yet employed. This will support the participation objectives under the Compact.
• TAFE NSW has included performance targets related to completions for young people aged 16-24 in the purchasing agreements which the Deputy Director-General, TAFE and Community Education has with each TAFE NSW Institute.
• Web-based support resources are being developed by TAFE NSW for implementation of the Compact.

Productivity Places Program (PPP)

• Under the PPP contract, all Registered Training Organisations are required to give priority to people aged 15-19 years who are not in school.
• Monitoring systems to track the take-up by 15 to 19 year olds have been established.
  The Compact and the priority enrolment requirement for young people under the PPP are being promoted on the NSW Training Market website. 1,200 email news-alert subscribers were advised in July 2009.

Other

• The NSW Government’s jobs strategy includes the commitment to employ a minimum of new apprentices per annum over the next four years through government funded initiatives. NSW Government agency capital and maintenance program budget allocations for the next four years (2009/10 to 2012/13) are directly tied to the targeted employment of apprentices, with ongoing funding levels conditional upon meeting the NSW Government jobs strategy and commitments.