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Employers / Businesses : Get ready for the Skilling Australians Fund!
Employees : Get your employers ready!
Currently, employers who wish to sponsor skilled workers either have to pay 2% of their payroll to an industry training fund or spend at least 1% of their payroll on training their Australian employees.
One of the major upcoming changes to employer sponsored and skilled visas affects these training benchmark requirements. As of March 2018, business sponsors will no longer be required to meet those training benchmark requirements. Instead, they will be replaced by the requirement to make financial contributions (for each overseas employee who is sponsored) to a newly created Skilling Australians Fund.
How will your business be affected by the new regulations?
The amount businesses have to pay into the Skilling Australians Fund depends on the size of the business and on the visa subclass utilized to sponsor the overseas employee.
The Temporary Skill Shortage Visa will replace the 457 visa soon. Businesses with a turnover of less than A$10 million per year will be required to make an upfront payment of A$1,200 for each employee sponsored on the new Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (TSS).
For permanent visas such as the subclass 186 ENS or RSMS visa, small businesses have to contribute A$3,000 to the Skilling Australians Fund.
Medium and large businesses with an annual turnover of more than A$10 million will be required to pay A$1,800 and A$5,000 respectively.
For more information regarding the current 457 training benchmarks and the upcoming changes, contact us and stay informed:
