Search Grants & Funding

School leavers and career changers who enrol full-time in initial teacher education (ITE) programs commencing in the first semester/study period of 2025 may be eligible for up to $40,000 from the Australian Government to support them in their studies.

The Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program aims to attract more high-achieving and diverse candidates into teaching by supporting new undergraduate and postgraduate ITE students to meet the costs of their study in exchange for teaching in government schools or government-run early learning settings for a time equivalent to the length of their ITE program.

Up to 1,000 scholarships per year will be offered over five years between 2024 – 2028.

Eligibility:

Applicants must be new ITE students commencing their full-time course in the first study period or semester of 2025 who are living in Australia and

are either an

• Australian citizen;
• Permanent resident;
• holder of a permanent humanitarian visa; or
• a New Zealand citizen living in Australia. 

The purpose of this grant is to provide Australian Government funding to support a wage increase for all eligible ECEC workers from December 2024.

Eligible ECEC workers include:

• workers covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 and working in a Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved Centre-Based Day Care (CBDC) or Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service;
• workers covered by the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 and working in a CCS approved CBDC or OSHC service; and
• workers who are undertaking duties covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 or Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 and working in a CCS approved CBDC or OSHC service but are not covered by these awards (including workers covered by a state industrial instrument, or working in a setting covered by a different award), and these duties constitute the majority of that workers role. 

Trainees who are undertaking a registered traineeship and whose pay and conditions are not covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 or the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 are not included as eligible ECEC workers. 

To be eligible you must be a legal entity that provides CBDC or OSHC services (a Provider). One Provider may apply in relation to one or multiple service locations (Services) that the Provider owns and operates.

These grants are being made available to the Early Childhood Education and Care workforce to assist with educator retention and upskilling. They provide money for ECEC services to:

1. Pay educators to undertake mandatory or highly recommended training during working hours or in their own time OR backfill those educators so that they can undertake mandatory or highly recommended trainings during working hours.
2. Pay educators a wage while they complete their practical component of an ECEC degree (including Diploma, Grad Diploma, Bachelor, Masters) to help student-educators complete their degrees.

The objective of the CCCF Special Circumstances Grant Opportunity is to support continuity of child care, in particular in disadvantaged or vulnerable communities, where service viability is affected by:

• an unforeseen event or circumstance outside the control of the service,such asa natural disaster or extreme weather event, or
• another event or circumstance,which would result in market failure for the community.