The Hon Peter Garrett MP
Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth

Senator the Hon Chris Evans
Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations
Leader of the Government in the Senate

Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate

Improving education and skills development through the NBN

Students and people undertaking vocational courses are set to benefit from online education, training and skills services projects designed to take advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced that the Gillard Government will provide $27.2 million in funding for a four year NBN Enabled Education and Skills Services Program, to support the development of online and interactive education and training projects.

"The NBN will support the delivery of online learning through the video and web-conferencing platforms needed for 21st century education, training and skills development," Senator Conroy said today at the CeBIT Australia Conference in Sydney.

"We will look at innovative education and training projects, which have the potential to deliver high quality, accessible and sustainable online tools to Australian schools, TAFEs, universities, workplaces and homes", said the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills, Senator Chris Evans.

"The program will focus on projects which help Australians to study, learn and develop skills no matter where they live or work around Australia."

Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, said the NBN will create great opportunities for Australian students to collaborate and for parents to access education resources to help their children learn.
"This program adds to our investment of more than $2.4 billion in the Digital Education Revolution, which provides Australian students with the tools that will be essential for their fast-changing digital world," Mr Garrett said.

Senator Evans said the NBN, together with the Government’s $3 billion investment in skills and training initiatives over six years, will deliver the skilled workers the economy needs and ensure more Australians can benefit from our growing prosperity.

"The Australian Government believes in the power of education and skills development to transform lives and to underpin the next round of productivity gains for the Australian economy," he said.

Program funding will target those communities to first benefit from the NBN, which will impact education and skills development in regional and remote areas.

The program’s draft funding guidelines are expected to be released for comment mid-year with a Call for Proposals to be issued in September 2011.

Selected project proposals will be announced by the end of 2011, with projects to commence in 2012.

Date: 31 May 2011
Senator Conroy media contact: Lyall Johnson 0408 258 457
Senator Evans media contact: Rhys Davies 0411 138 572
Minister Garrett media contact: Kate Pasterfield 0437 965 071
DEEWR Media: media@deewr.gov.au
Non-media queries: 1300 363 079