Smart & Skilled Funding (NSW)

Smart and Skilled is a reform of the NSW vocational education and training system. It’s helping people get the skills they need to find a job and advance their careers.

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.

For more information about Smart and Skilled, click on the following links:

https://skills.education.nsw.gov.au/

https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/vocational

Are you Eligible?

To be eligible for NSW Smart & Skilled funding, prospective students must be:

• 15 years old or over, and
• no longer at school, and
• living or working in NSW (or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person living in specific NSW border areas, and
• an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, Australian humanitarian visa holder or New Zealand citizen. 

Previous qualifications do not affect your eligibility.

​If you have a Certificate IV or higher qualification you are still able to access subsidised Smart and Skilled training up to Certificate III level, providing you meet the personal eligibility criteria for Smart and Skilled. As you already have a post-school qualification, you will pay a higher fee for your Smart and Skilled training than someone who does not have any qualifications.

Who is eligible for Skilling for Recovery?

Participants eligible for NSW Smart & Skilled will also be eligible for Skilling for Recovery, providing that you meet one of the following requirements:

• A young person aged 16 to 24 at commencement of training, regardless of employment status, including Year 12 School leavers. People aged 16 years old are eligible if they enrol in a skilling for recovery full or part qualification from 26 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
• A person who is a recipient of a Commonwealth Government welfare benefit (and their dependants)
• An unemployed person
• An unemployed person who is expected to become unemployed who falls into one of the following four categories:
  • Stood down / furloughed employee
  • Person who has been employed for 6 months or less
  • Low skilled/unskilled employee
  • Workers in declining industries

If you match all of these criteria, you’ll be eligible for a fully funded qualification under the Skilling for Recovery Initiative. For more information about Skilling for Recovery, you can access a copy of Smart and Skilled Policy for Skilling for Recovery Initiative by clicking on this link.

Want to know how much Smart and Skilled funding will contribute to your course fees?

Smart and Skilled funding contributions are dependant on each individual’s circumstances, in order to provide you with an accurate contribution calculation and remaining course cost you can complete the Expressions of Interest form with the required details and we can email you a quote.

Alternatively, you can click the link below to the Smart & Skilled calculator to obtain an estimate of your eligibility.

This training is subsidised by the NSW Government.

Smart and Skilled NSW eligibility calculator:

To use the Eligibility Checker:

Go to the Course Finder and click the ‘Estimate your fee’ button. You can then check your eligibility and get an estimate of the fee for your course.

Smart and Skilled – Notification of Enrolment Process

1. Prospective student is required to fill out the enrolment form as well as to read and sign the Privacy Notice form show your consent. Consent must be obtained from prospective students in regards to the use of prospective student’s information prior to the enrolling.

2. Unique Student Identifier (USI) must be created by the student and be provided to breakthru Ltd. If you wish to have our staff to apply for USI on your behalf, you are required to provide authorisation by filling our Unique Student Identifier (USI) application form which is available on the last pages of our enrolment form. You can go to this link to find out more information on how to apply for USI.

3. Prospective student is required to provide evidence of their eligibility. Please refer to Smart and Skilled Student Eligibility Policy for more detailed information about the types of evidence to be provided.

4. Credit Transfer or RPL information must be supplied and reviewed by Breakthru (if applicable). Please speak to our staff about the whole process of Credit Transfer and RPL or See Student Handbook here.

5. Completed enrolment form, signed Privacy Notice form and evidence must be submitted prior to enrolling.

6. Through the provider calculator, breakthru will validate eligibility, input details of any Credit Transfer or Recognition of Prior Learning (if applicable) and generate details of the fee chargeable and the applicable subsidy together with any loadings (if applicable). Breakthru will also provide the prospective student with details of fee chargeable.

7. Breakthru generates and maintains a hard copy or electronic copy of the Notification of Enrolment report and provides a copy of this to prospective student. Successful completion of the Notification of Enrolment process will result in the issuance of a Commitment ID.

8. Prospective student must confirm (by reading and signing the enrolment form) that all information provided by the student to the provider, in connection with the Notification of Enrolment process is true, accurate, complete and not misleading in any way.

9. Prospective student will be enrolled into our Student Management System and Learning Management System and be sent a notification upon successful enrolment in the systems via email. The notification also contains login details for prospective student.

10. Prospective student will receive a Training Plan from breakthru Ltd as soon as the enrolment in the Student Management System is successful. Student will also be given an opportunity to have input into developing the Training Plan. Please contact your trainer or our staff in you have any feedback. The contact details of your trainer and our staff are outlined in the Training Plan too..

​For more information, please contact breakthru College on 1800 767 212

Fee Administration Policy

Students will be able to access more information about Smart and Skilled Fee Administration Policy by clicking on this link