Unfortunately, when money is a little tight, staff training and development can be one of the first things businesses and organisations cut back on.

This can be short-sighted because the investment in skills to bring about change or improved performance for increased productivity and profitability is lost.

A smart way to deliver training at reduced cost, whatever the state of the finances, is to obtain funding subsidies through Government funded training programs.

Forysthes Training has helped clients from a range of sectors including mining, health, manufacturing, agriculture, defence and local government, to access part funding or full funding for their training in areas including leadership and management, project management, training and assessment, work health and safety, customer engagement and computer literacy.

Smart and Skilled is a NSW Government program that supports skills development to meet the state’s future demand for jobs. Registered training organisations who are approved Smart and Skilled suppliers have caps to provide subsidised competency-based training in a range of courses.

AgSkilled is a NSW Government funded program that helps cotton and grains industries drive the productivity, profitability and competitiveness of the cotton and grains industries.

There are other training subsidies through State Training Services:

• Regional Vocational Education and Training (VET) Pathways to support 15- to 19-year-olds;
• A retrenched Workers Assistance Program;
• A range of programs to support employment and skill development for Aboriginal people, including mentoring for Aboriginal apprentices and trainees; and
• Continuing Apprentices Placement Service (CAPS) providing a free job matching service for out-of-trade apprentices.

Recently we worked with WesTrac to customise training in project management for key staff. The training gave staff some formal, accredited skill sets and additional practical tools to enhance their existing project management experience. We were able to secure NSW Government Smart and Skilled exiting worker skill set funding, making the training fully subsidised by the NSW Government.

When thinking about training, look for government or industry subsidies or a training provider who is accredited under such programs and able to find subsidies for you.