Did you know? Students registered for homeschooling and aged 15 years or over are eligible for government-subsidised courses at TAFE.
Enrolments are now open for Semester 2 courses at NSW TAFE courses – it is worthwhile taking a look at the TAFE NSW website at what’s available, and attending Information Sessions with your student. (Note: registration for information sessions is required.)
Many home educated students have found TAFE courses a good next step – TAFE is set up to assist students to succeed and tailored support is available if needed. TAFE courses qualify students for work, and can provide a pathway to University – a Certificate 4 is equivalent to year 12 and can be used to enrol into many University courses.
‘Smart and Skilled’ provides eligible students with:
- an entitlement to government-subsidised training up to and including Certificate III
- government funding for higher-level courses (Certificate IV and above) in targeted priority areas.
Since January 2017, eligibility for Smart and Skilled has been extended to registered home schooled students, that meet the following criteria:
- aged 15 years or older
- live in New South Wales
- an Australian citizen, permanent resident, humanitarian visa holder, or New Zealand citizen.
Courses include fully online courses through TAFE Digital, as well as on-campus courses. No evidence of year 10 completion is required – students are required to show their certificate of registration for homeschooling (current for the full period of the course) when enrolling. Online enrolment is not yet available for students under 17.
SHEN volunteers are currently in the process of organising homeschool careers events in Sydney and on the Central Coast with Kate Flaherty, an experienced careers advisor with the National Careers Institute https://www.dese.gov.au/nci, who is an experienced homeschool parent. The planned dates are mid-August. Further details will be available soon.